graeme.blog

Category: diary

  • Said I’d take some pics of the garden

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    And found these butterflies up to no good. It was quite tricky to get a good close-up of them, I didn’t want to disturb them.

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    This is probably a fair indicator of where I’m up to at the moment with the garden, there is a lot of work to do around the edges. The dark area at the back needs clearing and sorting out, not really sure what I’ll do with it yet. I think I’ll clear it first, then worry about that. It lacks a lot of sunlight for starters, so I’m not quite sure what will best grow there, I would like to see something there though.

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    This ramshackle thing is a quince bush (I’ve been told, anyways). I’m trying to encourage it along the fence a bit more, and should really hack it back into a bit of shape. May do that tonight if I’m feeling energetic.

  • Weekended

    Well mainly a good weekend. Got to see our friends J&S on Friday and Saturday night, and had a good time playing charades and Buzz, and consuming plenty of quality cheeses. However I was somewhat ill on Saturday afternoon. Felt a bit odd coming home after a quick trip to B&Q (rest easy, the shower is now fixed), and when we got back I went to bed for a couple of hours. Woke up, and just felt utterly grot, like each step was a effort. Put up with it through Saturday night, but really wasn’t very happy at all. However Sunday morning I felt fine. Very perculiar, I’d say it was some sort of 24 hour bug, but even then it seemed to last about 12 hours. I could do without that though.

    The garden is coming on a bit, I’m trying to weed a bit more each evening, and I’ve got some giant sunflower seeds planted out, so hopefully they will sprout up next month. When I’m a bit more organised, I’ll try and get some pictures done. I’m also pondering what needs cutting and pruning at the back of the garden to give it a bit more sunlight, it’s got quite thick out there.

    I also celebrated last night hitting the 5000 point mark on Xbox 360 Live, I now have respectable proof of how I’ve wasted my life. Pacman skills on Pacman CE and Ms. Pacman got me there, but I intend to play through some more Forza 2 to keep up the momentum.

  • Lazy weekend ahead

    Not too much planned, friends over tonight, then need to fix the shower which is broken, then general pottering about for the rest of the weekend. I’ve not done badly on getting the garden weeded and looking slightly less shabby, what I could do with is a bit of work to start getting it looking nice. I think a lot of judicious pruning is in order.

    Not much else to report, am definitely in Friday mode, head locked on being in the pub as soon as possible after work finishes.

  • I’ve been a little lost for words

    Not in a bad way, just haven’t had much to say lately. And as they say, if you can’t say anything, don’t say something for the sake of saying something. Or something.

    We’re due another fairly quiet weekend, having just had one. We had a little shopping, did some chores around the house, I hacked the lawn and weeded somewhat (in fact I’ve weeded the past two nights as well, and there is plenty left to do), and read, watched telly and played games.

    At the moment I’m playing a lot of Forza 2, which is a wonderful racing game, but it’s a bit intense on the wrists (I’ve had to turn off the rumble as it was trashing them somewhat). To have a little break from it now and then, I’ve just got Pacman Championship Edition from Live Arcade, which is an odd updating of the classic. It’s got a lot more hectic and hypnotic. I’ve played it properly a few times tonight and it is quite satisfyingly intense.

    I’m presently halfway through a geekcourse on XML, which in the main is going in. However I’m also quite distracted by the thought of my diabolo, which I’ve finally got into again for the summer (it is normally cast aside in winter, then when summer comes around is a wonderful excuse to get down the park). I’ve been watching a movie called The Art of Diabology, which is the best instruction in the art I’ve ever had. Very inspiring, but the difficulty level in it ramps up massively. So during my course I’ve found my mind wandering to tumbling diabolos on strings occasionally.

    One last thing, there’s a new comment on the P Wyndham Little project. Look at the recent comments on the front page for more.

  • Submerge Podcast

    The Submerge Podcast is well worth a listen, particularly if you like your old House and Detroit Techno. I’d particularly recommend the interview with Ron Murphy (links direct to mp3), which is a lengthy piece talking to one of the unsung heroes of Techno, whilst playing some of the tunes he had a hand in. Murphy was the record cutter of choice for the top Detroit artists, and in doing so on his analogue equipment helped them to achieve the true deep sound they were looking for. Thanks to Tim for putting me onto this.

  • A new month, new weather.

    So what will June bring us? Slightly less rain, hopefully. A trip down to Devon, and possibly the Eden project, almost certainly. Some outdoors drinking, luxuriating in the sun? Certainly tonight, unless things change substantially.

    I have to go and get my tumbling locks shaved off tomorrow, then we might get out somewhere for a walk or cycle ride, make the most of the sunshine (which I am perhaps foolishly assuming will be there). May get to dust off the camera, haven’t had much need for it recently, and could do with some new pictures.

    And I seriously need to think about some gardening. If it has dried out some, I might have a go at the back garden on Sunday. It is quite Junglicious at the moment. I may or may not take pictures of that, depending on how deep my shame in it is. Basically it is partly down to hating the lawnmower we have for the house. I’m hoping to get a push mower soon, that may encourage me to do it more regularly, as it is such a pain getting out the hover mower we presently have. If not, I may just replace it with something better.

    Middle-age is clearly where you start to be equally bothered about your consoles and your lawn mower.

  • I want a Wii and I want one now (or at least I think I do)

    On Monday I set out to try and track down a Nintendo Wii. I’ve been pondering it for a while, and having just been paid this weekend, I felt the urge to own one overwhelm me. Could I find one? Not for lack of trying. I hit every possible store in town, to no avail. The last one I went into I just dejectedly asked “You haven’t got any Wiis, have you. No? Good. Bye”. It has only been out here for six months, one would think they wanted to sell the bloody thing. Now I’m annoyed and don’t know if I want one at the moment, especially if it means tracking them down, rather than being bought on a whim (wiim?).

  • Yet another long weekend to come

    Bank Holidays rock. 3 days off to relax, achieve little, and think of what I could be doing were I bothered. Great.

    Hopefully we’ll get a wander down by the river in sunshine tomorrow. Weather is supposed to last for us until then. We also have the return of Mrsfb’s brother from the states, our recon mission to New York. I’m hoping he is coming back packing sweets. Maybe a visit from some friends too. And now my 360 is working again, some gaming on that when it starts raining. Oh, and the Monaco GP, the finest of all the F1 races. Should be a fun weekend now I spell it all out.

  • Tagged

    Well, I’ve just been tagged by Emily who writes one of my favourite blogs, Doing it all again. So this means I have to give you all 8 random facts about me:

    1. I’m a distant relation of the godfather of English Football, Sir Stanley Matthews
    2. I have a fascination with the diabolo, and intend that this summer I shall finally learn how to get two going at once
    3. I once saw a ghost labrador
    4. I can walk on my knees in the lotus position. I once “walked” the length of a gym doing this, now I suspect that would hurt a lot
    5. My father claims to have one up on Pele, in that he once scored a goal from the halfway line, and Pele famously didn’t.
    6. I used to play competitive chess, and gave it up when I got fed up with being beaten by 7 year old child geniuses
    7. My mother claims to have invented the “weather map as comedy device”, as she sent a sketch using this to That Was The Week That Was, which appeared a few weeks later uncredited.
    8. I first wrote on this very website back in 1998.

    I tag back Al, Emma, Wonderduck, Iamnotthebeatles, Ben, & Sarah.

  • More like it.

    Well it seems the weather gods do read my blog, lovely day outside at the moment. It may get wet later, but it’s been nice thus far. I got slightly drenched on the way home last night, despite having a brolly and “the way home” being a two minute walk from the bus stop. Mrsfb wasn’t anything like as lucky and got absolutely soaked through, poor thing. Oh well, it is supposed to be nicer over the next few days.

    Have to get around to facing up to sorting my Xbox shortly, especially as the Halo 3 beta is just out. I have also found out through the forums on Digital Spy that I might be able to get my dodgy Sky+ box replaced, which would be a very good thing indeed, as the quality of the recordings on it at the moment are shocking, the sound skips to the point of it being unwatchable. I was considering packing it all in and moving to Virgin, but the accounts of people using their boxes are even worse, same problems, but then with issues on the boxes not recording at all thrown in, which hasn’t ever really been a problem on Sky. So I’ll try and get it sorted and stick with them.