Archive for the ‘Ponderings’Category

2009: A Retrospect

Another year gone, time for another annual retrospective review. Not really in the mood to write much so I’ll just leave you with some pics summarising the last twelve months, but I’ve got to say that the highlight of my year was probably my trip to South Africa. That was really something.

01

01 2010

Walk with my G11

Yesterday evening after work I went shopping for some heavy duty gloves for an up coming winter sports holiday. I had my G11 with me and did a spot of night photography, strolled around Covent Garden, down to Trafalgar Square and ending at Picadilly. The Christmas lights this year are somewhat abyssmal. I reminised about how when I was an undergraduate, Jac and I would go night photographying along the river in the freezing cold. Oh the memories. It’s not quite so much fun when you’re shooting solo.

Here are a couple of pics I’ve taken so far with the G11. It’s a very capable piece of kit!

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11

12 2009

Kitty Minus

I forgot to mention in my Helsinki entry. For some reason, we saw plenty of dogs about but no cats. Not one in the whole time we were there.

17

09 2009

To Do

For a while now (in fact, since I got back from South Africa in April ’09), I’ve been meaning to update the “Portfolio” and “Projects” section of the site. I still haven’t but will do at some point in the near future. The thing is, life just kinda plods along and there are all these small bits and pieces to do which simply slip through the cracks or are just left to the side as a “I’ll do it later” task but you never really get round to it. You just leave it there, other stuff takes priority and you shift it back. OK, so its not essential to update my site, but I just feel that I should while at the same time, I don’t really have a compulsion to do so. It’s become another task in my ever lengthening to-do list to do.

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03

09 2009

Breakdowns

This weekend, we drove up the A40 and I noticed that there were quite a lot of people parked up on the hard shoulder suffering from vehicular problems. Since I’ve been learning to drive (finally, some say), I’ve been reading my driving books and realised how none of them actually follow the book. If you’re on the hard shoulder, you and all your passengers should get behind the barrier and onto the bank while waiting for help, but there were families just loitering behind the car. You don’t get behind the barrier just for fun, you do it because its safer than standing on the roadside where cars are whizzing past you at 70 mph. The hazard lights should also be switched on.

It seems odd that to pass ones driving test, you don’t actually have to learn how to drive on the motorway. In fact, learner drivers aren’t allowed on motorways.

24

08 2009

Time

It’s a bit weird time. When you’ve got plenty to do, there doesn’t seem to be enough of it, but when you’re bored, there’s too much of it.

Today I had planned to update some reports on As and Hg. This morning, around 11.30pm, I went to Ikea with mum in search of a new chair, no avail. So later, we went to Costco to see what they had to offer, there was a nice grey one, adjustable and comfy so it was purchased. I got a whole bunch of other stuff during the day too, a few boxes, a literature organiser (fancy filing rack thing), photo frames etc…

Once I’d got home, it must’ve been something like 7:30 pm. Where has the day gone? I spent the evening building my chair and literature organiser, tidied up my room, basically faffed about. It wasn’t until around midnight that I had a chance to just sit down and enjoy my comfy chair.

Where has all the time gone? Looks like As and Hg will have to wait till tomorrow. But I don’t think I’ll get much done, I’ve got a meeting in the morning, intending to pop into the fish shop for some new fish and I guess once I’m home, I’ll be acclimatising them and tidying up the aquarium.

So much to do, so little time.

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19

05 2009

Conditioning

This afternoon when I got home from work, I tried to tap my security pass on the door to gain entry. The only problem is, my front door only opens with a key…

How dumb is that?!

05

05 2009

Writers Block

These days, I really don’t know what to write and this applies to work too. I have all the materials in front of me but I can’t seem to make it all fit into coherant paragraphs.

I really can’t think of anything fascinating to blog. There’s only so much cat and fish stories to tell. Cici has found a way to get to the roof of the extension and the other day I picked up three rather nice clown loaches for my small tank. They’re still a bit shy and sit in the corner most of the time under my CO2 curly whurly laddery thingy.

For some weeks now, I tend to spend my day and nights reading papers and writing. That’s all I seem to do now. I wake up, switch on the computer, look for papers, write, eat lunch, read more papers, write some more, dinner, shower, write even more, sleep and the whole cycle starts again. If I’m going to work, then its wake up, go to work, switch on computer, read, write, lunch, read, write, switch off computer, home, switch on computer, eat, shower, read, write, sleep and so on. It’s pretty much the same on the weekends. Downtime is somewhat of a rarity. I even go to sleep thinking about work, but strangely, I haven’t dremt about work…well, not yet anyway.

12

03 2009

Doom

I can’t remember where it was that I read that the quickest way to kill a blog is to stop blogging.

I suppose I ought to blog more then.

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08

03 2009

Focus

This strip pretty much sums me up at the moment.

Click here.

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24

02 2009