Brandon

Magical Screw Up

MMIA!

Moshi is MIA. Still!

Last time I saw her was Monday evening when I got back from work, after she'd had the minor "episode" at the weekend (see previous post). Another cat, Gilbert, has gone missing from the next street along...Have they eloped? Been catnapped? Is she trapped somewhere?*

I flyered my own and the 2 next streets this evening, but I wildly underestimated the number of flyers even though I thought 100 would be enough. It's crowded round here man, so many houses!

I learnt something though. I would fucking hate being a postman!

...No sign of multicoloured roadkill either (I went out on The Steed and checked)

BASTARD. CAT.**

Where am I?

*OMG! I just thought...she does like going into Rosie's house; they went camping on Tuesday morning...this is paranoiac, 2+2=5 nonsense (or is it?)...maybe she is trapped in Rosie's house! Trapped...hungry & thirsty (I'm sure she can survive ~2 days, they're back tomorrow!)...and...lonely...and...oh, yeah shitting and pissing all over the place!

** I'm only saying that because despite her being, well, let's face it, just. a. cat....I love her, despite myself and I am unwittingly stressing out!!

My New Best Mate & Favourite Enemy

Cycled to work and back today. Mainly because it's Friday and I had this cunning plan to be logged in, ready and working by 7am so I could leave (feasibly) at 3pm...It worked! Mainly because I woke up at 5, sorted myself out, did the uphill and had a quick shower at work...oh, and I turned only the lights for my "pod" on and listened to the overfill beep on the coffee machine until the aircon (hoho!) came on at 7:30.

After a day filled with subduing french panic (i think), trying to figure out where to put the Romanians and some funky XSLT/Queuing tech, meeting some other (unrelated) Romanians and the fantastic Mr Sked offering to post a load of PC parts, I cycled home on a different (and somewhat randomly chosen route). A good route!

Only one significant uphill, which is thankfully shallow (ish) and short. Loads of flat (as flat as it gets in Bristol), and some mental downhills...during the best/steepest of which the recent vague squeaking from the stem manifested itself in a complete 360 of the bars. Very disconcerting suddenly having to brake using the heel of your hand, especially at speed*.

Luckily, there was a Halfords at the bottom of the hill so I picked up some Allen (Hex) Keys and sorted that mother out. Also raised seat 1/2 inch for greater leverage....What did I learn? High single gears == wrenching with the arms!!

Unfortunately while I was cycling in a more sane and relaxed manner round some of the local streets a van came hooning round a corner (blindsided by parked vehicles, mind) and almost took me off (thanks ears! you work great!!) and I smacked my knee right in the "dead spot" as I viciously swung left to avoid him...not being able to use one leg is not good on a bike and thus I slowly dropped onto the pavement. Saving myself (though not my dignity) by stamping out my numb, collapsing, left leg at the last minute and getting rammed in the arse by my seat...

Not so sure about getting clip style pedals/shoes now...

There are no pictures today, I'm too busy swearing at traffic!


* According to CardioTrainer on the G2 my top speed was 42mph. I don't trust it, so lets say it was 35mph at this point....very very steep & just the right kind amount of swoopy! No traffic...I must get one of those computery things....

Stator vs Rotor

Yesterday featured a 5 mile hill-laden cycle-ride in the morning. It almost killed me. By which I mean, remember to eat before expending calories!!

The farm fair in the afternoon was pretty cool though. We definitely arrived at about the right time (2 hours in) because when I left with Esmae in tow and Flo 'pon shoulders at half 5 it was MENTAL!

In the morning, we got our attitude on...


...and we went to the park...


Where Flo demonstrated her new "grown up girl" skill...

The queue we saw (to get into the fair) was at least as mental as the queue (that went, literally, round the block!) for the Banksy exhibition at 10am this morning. We commented upon it as we dined upon smoked salmon, eggs, toast, jam, coffee & frothy milk, and bacon....then...

...Then we went to Blaise Castle park.

In other news, I am making a new costume in preparation for the next 8bit MicroRave (more on that later)....Professor Robot-Head will be in the house!

Mah Hood!

Mah Home...a short film about where I live. Not made by me, but cool nonetheless.

Sweet Corn

I debated over "Corny Cob", "Corny but Sweet", "You'll take my cob from my cold, dead hand!"...then plumped for the above. Whatever.

So. Work is kinda interesting at the moment; lots of people huffin' & puffin' about the 'no payrise' thing, how crap the 'present' was this year (bottle of Bucks Fizz, 4 baloons, some toys, some retro sweets, Santa hat (or antlers), and a SIM reader (probably those unsold in the shops)...or a pen!). Admittedly shite, but why expect anything?! More amusingly, Teh Numpty Tw@s have installed all my new servers (needed ASAP) in the wrong environment. Nobody can quite believe this...but at the same time everyone says it's typical.

Performance review...OK...finding out how much I could earn if I sold my soul to the devil (not that I believe in either of those concepts, hence the lower case...and implied irony)...sucked.

Nightmare journey home! The 1st 200 yards took 1 hour, which is usually the whole journey...then I had to walk about a mile because the traffic was so slow it was quicker! Luckily there is a pretty much vertical shortcut towards the end of the march...I'll take a picture next time because you basically have half of Bristol spread before you and it looks top!

Rant over....here's the whole reason I started this sorry excuse for a post...


Man, does she love corn on the cob!