DJ Koala makes me feel strange...

...mixing chicken clucks with Evangalist preachers!

thumbs up! to teh ricola....

here is Lil snoring in my ear....i did not want to wake her up...thus...

Brief...

Watched "Batman Begins" last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. A classic disposable action movie...though it did take me 2 applications to find one that would play DivX with sound properly.

The PC also picked up a Trojan sometime while I was in Nice - I'd left it downloading some torrents ;)

Somehow it got past the 2 Firewalls but was picked up by the scheduled virus scan...so that was OK...and I've now updated the Firewall software and tightened up some logging. This was the 1st ever succesful (or not, if you see what I mean) attempt to attack one of my PCs. Inevitable I suppose.

Anyway....

It took about 5 seconds to from smiling to p!ssed off :)

Nice is nice....

....but not very sunny. gun metal grey cloudcover and a definite nip in the air.

The GeekFest is going well and I have so far avoided being hassled too much....and i managed to blag an extra 45 euros of "drink card"....probably best not to ask ;)

I have this photo as my phone's wallpaper and I can't stop looking at it!

Revenge of the Sith...er Cyst

Apparently I have a Thyroidal Cyst!

Joe noticed that I appeared to have 2 adams apples at the weekend, so Monday morning I was off to the quack....didn't take long and apparently the "consultants will love you. They'll have all the students in trying to figure out what it is. Prodding and pokng you." Now, this happened to me once before, a long time ago when I was in hospital to remove a similar affair from somewhere a bit more sensitive (boys have 2 of them....girls don't)....and that was seriously embarrasing.

"I have private healthcare", I squeaked!

Hopefully, it will all be sorted soon.

In the meantime:

Visitor...

Joe came down from London this weekend and we had a great night out on Saturday. Fulleride and Mr Knife came out too and a few beers (and 2 rounds of Tequila) were had by all.

Managed to sort out a couple of problems with Joe and Tola's laptops...introduced him to his niece (and then freaked him out a bit by repeating "That's your niece" over and over again. Fulleride did the same to me last month, repeating "Your daughter" over and over....it'sscary.

Took a couple of videos over the weekend too, I'll figure out how to get them here sometime. They're MP4 so should play in Real Player.



Comedy Gold moment, was Joe attempting to hold Lil....I've never seen anyone lose co-ordination so quickly...like he was holding a sack of spuds!

Had to go to the quack's again today...I've been 4 times in the last 8 months....prior to that I hadn't seen a doctor for about 8 years!!!...am I falling apart or something now I'm a dad?

Snigger...

So, the big boss from my team (we'll call him David, cos that's his name) was over in Briz today for some kind of meeting about the new organisation structure and he asked to have a word with me about why I'm leaving his team...my answer?

Because after 8 months you have just had a meeting to define job roles and objectives. I've been asking for over 1 year for this to be done....too slow.

Then he started whining (wineing?)....erm, whingeing about how hard it will be to find someone able to fill my "Java ME" shoes....not my problem. Yours!

*Sniggering to myself all the way home*

On another note, you could do worse to check out this a rather wonderful website from another member of the family...this one is older and better.

Oh, and...given that I don't have a TV (are you reading this Licensing people? Stop sending me the f*cking letters!), the ol' PC has been "torrenting" some of my fave TV programs for the last 48 hours...got me some "American Chopper", "Myth Busters", "StarTrek Enterprise Season 1", "Lost" (which people keep telling me about so I thought I'd have a look)...and the Fantastic Four movie.

Legal? Dunno...don't care.

And finally...


i'm a gonna punch you if you scare me again, dad!



I think the flash on the camera scares Lil :)

Just a quickie...

Had a great night out with the Ricola (female) and loads of other people on Saturday night. However smoking and drinking did no good for my cold/cough.

Woke up Sunday morning sounding like Barry White!

Other than that, I'm working from home today as I just got Broadband sorted on my home PC...so no more slow 3G connection...and thus I am preparing to get my arse kicked by Ferdinand de Buckos on Far Cry online :(

No further babber pics yet...but I'll probably post some later in the week.

I just got on National Radio!!!

Thanks to the fact that I was working from home I had BBC Radio 4 on in the background. On the Money Programme today they were asking for people to phone in with questions about benefits..."F*x it! I'll phone in" I thought (not expecting to get through)...got through, they took my question "What benefits are available to a parent without parental responsibility, who works full time, while the parent with full control is on benefits...?" ("and intends to stay on them forever!", I nearly said...but don't want to antagonise the Rose).

Anyway, bit later....walking back from Rose's having seen Lil for 10 minutes (sleeping, not spotty.....BBBEEEEeeeeeaaaauuuutttttiiiifffffUUUUUULLLL!!!!! lolols!) and they rang me!

Basically, was too flustered to sound coherent, and I rambled a bit - after they'd put me on silent actually so you don't me hear talk about my "pre-emptive strike" :)

I think you can find it here and obviously I do not use the name "guri", but "Ben".

The answer was essentially "None, you're screwed son".

Human Rights? Bah!

w00t!

Got the job!

Bit of a payrise, with hopeful promotion up the scale mid-year 2006!

No more French line managers! That's the best bit ;)

New phone...spots....and a job?

OK, not so lazy this time, eh?



Actually, I'm waiting for part 2 of the Dylan documentary on BBC2 which is on again at 9 this evening and rather than watch bollocks TV until that time I've got The Archers on in the background, checking a few late work emails and faffing with this new phone.



I'm trialling a new Nokia 3G device, the N70i. It's bigged up as a "Music" phone and runs Series 60 Symbian...I've already managed to delete all the "Signature" applications (by formatting the memory card), changed everything so that it's less Nokia and tried out the 2 MegaPixel camera.



...though I'm disappointed to note that there's a delay between the "shutter" sound when you press the Capture button and the actual taking of the picture...I think this might be something to do with the flash, as it's much worse when using "Night Mode"...almost 0.5 second delay between button press and flash/capture....anyway that's a rant for the relevant Trials Manager. The earphones and MP3 quality is nice....and it's got a radio....and supposedly there will be "TV Viewing" software (the whole point of signing up for the trial!) soon. It's still a Nokia though and I still prefer my SE/// K600i (which, incidentally is being flashed up to commercial software tomorrow).

Other than that, I've realised a few more blog-watchers than I expected (you've probably all gone after that geek-out on mobiles), the ale is conditioning in the keg ready for Fulleride and Marlon to sample. Lillian is lovely...beautifuler than your baby!!! So what she's spotty...those'll clear up; you're ugly mug is there for life! ;)

Still not sent Thanks to Nicky or Ivor/Sue...tell them about this place...It's cheaper than a stamp :)

If i get the job I'll post a quick w00t and then go spend some money I don't have on beer....MMmmm, sweet beer how I miss thee!

Lazy...

...that's me.

Yes, I know it's been a while but I've come to realise that this is probably the same reason why I never managed to keep a diary for more than a few days when I was a kid!

Life goes on as normal....work is....well, work. Though I have applied for a new job within Orange and should find out if I have an interview in the next week or so. No more gadgets for Guri :( though working with "big boxes" again should be fun. Certainly more fun than I had sorting out my CV.

Thanks to Nicky et famille for the lovely baby grows and Ivor & Sue for the wossname and the little hat....still working our way through the ton of supplies M&D bought down...how many teethbrush?

Anyway, some pics...




And here's one if Nic being shy....or a Nazi....happy birthday for Saturday female Ricola!

One Week On

So, it's been a week now....can't really believe that Lillian is approximately 0.02 Years 0ld already! I'm getting a few hours every morning and another hour or so in the early evening, which is about as much as is needed.

Next week I'm going back to work part-time plus more work done from home so I'll see her less, but The Rose is allowing a couple of 3 hour sessions and a couple of 2 hour ones so that's good....I know most dads have to work and so don't get much time with their kids, but having the time dictated by (essentially) The Roses whim is definitely going to be hard. Apart from the beautiful beautiful baby in my life, this is the hardest time I've ever had.



Enjoy the latest piccies!



And one of Esmae, just for fun!



The "Lil Smith's" IPA I started homebrewing has been ready all week, and I've tucked into 4 or 5 pints already - I only got 30 pints this batch, due to some "mismanagement" with the fermentation bin and the spigot on the barrel....not as bad as the time I sprayed 2 gallons of half-brewed lager round my room in Potton ;)

The brew is crystal clear, has a very light fizz and a sweet, almost nutty flavour. A very good choice in the end. I hope to get a couple of smaller conditioning kegs in the next week and to start up a batch of something different...something nifty for Chrimbo, and then immediately get started on something dark and heavy. For the winter months you understand.

That's it for now; I'm off to illegally copy some DVDs...I mean watch a film or something ;)

Oh yeah...and happy birthday to Ground Zero!!!

Rapid changes...

Here are a few more photos.

Lillian is now almost 4 days old and getting more beautiful by the day (though I swore that was impossible).

Hormones and emotions are up and down all round; mum, me and Lil are all feeling it I suspect...though I can really only speak for myself. For Lil's part it's a kind of windy look, wriggling, and occasional eye-to-eye fixation while I tell the story of Queen Mumma, King Dad and the brave Knight Joe who retrieves protective (and protected) animals from Jungles to care for and teach the two princesses, Lil and Es. And hiccups.

Anyway....I digress.

Click the pics for bigger ones.

New arrival!

So that's it then.

I've had 2 hours sleep since 10am Saturday morning, but boy oh boy has it been worth it. The Rose went into labour at 9pm last night, and baby Lillian arrived at 4:30am wieghing in at 8lbs 11oz...massive! And didn't The Rose feel it...good skills lady.

Lillian is amazing! I cannot express quite how much it's affected me. Until now, all my thoughts and feelngs about it had been kind of theoretical. But now, it's like I'm a different person. I thought that when people had said that in the past, that it was cliched. I was wrong. It's true.

So that's it for this post.

I'm off to bed before I fall asleep on my laptop.

Wonderings

So, still no sign of "teh chile".

Went to the Ricola last night for a return match of Dinner. I think Ricola wins. Nobody beats the company. Plus bacon caressed by dates, chicken with booze & spices, and quite simply the best apple and plum crumble I've had in years (with super-ginger-power flavour). Safe to say wine, smoky treats and such led to a cab after the strange Err03 on the magic tv box.

God bless the Ricola!