Scents of Direction

	Scents of Direction


	This is what I think...


	< oxford blog > Blogger


	Tuesday, November 30, 2004 On the way to London this morning my fellow commuters were greeted with the following announcement at Bicester North Station: "We regret to inform you that the 07.25 Chiltern Railways service to London Marylebone is currently running eight minutes late, it will arrive at platform two at 07.37" - Steve, 10:32 PM, It's been a while since the last update and that usually means that I have run out of enthusiasm, this time though it's just that I've been busy doing stuff. The long weekend in Scotland was great, we stayed in a massive farmhouse (this one in the courtyard of Creich Castle) with 14 other people, most of whom were members of Clares family that we really don't get to see often enough. Georgia loved spending time with her cousins and I think the rest of us enjoyed a long stress-free break in some stunning countryside. The wedding great, the reception was even better. It was in a marquee that was much more posh than many (most!) hotels I have stayed in, it had wooden floors, marble bathrooms and a full commercial kitchen for the caterers. The food was great and the speeches went on until 11pm (even though there were only three of them...) even so, they were really entertaining. I drank way too much and made a bit of a fool of myself on the dancefloor * but I don't think it was a problem; apparently I was quite entertaining in the early hours when I had lost co-ordination and the power of coherent speech. * That and the fact that Blogger has been really, really slow recently. I have attempted to write this post for the last couple of days and given up. ** Note to self: that bit of dancing in Pulp Fiction looked good when Travolta and Thurman did it, your rendition with that startled looking 21 year old laydee was just shocking. - Steve, 10:10 PM, Monday, November 22, 2004 This week I'll only be Working for three days, today is Oxfordshire and Warwickshire and then Tuesday and Wednesday will be in Cheshire, On Thursday we are travelling up to St Andrews for a wedding over the weekend. I'm quite looking forward to going but the timing is quite poor in that it is the weekend before I get paid which means finances are low... These are the times when some sort of credit would be useful. Next week contains pay-day and this time it will include an annual bonus which, while not massive, will help out no end! - Steve, 10:20 AM, Sunday, November 14, 2004 The family of a north Devon student are calling for a worldwide inquiry into a drug they say caused the depression which led him to kill himself Roaccutane is a very powerful drug, I was prescribed it 10 years ago to treat severe acne and although it worked it was particularly unpleasant. The drug is usually prescribed as a last resort and in my case it was, I had tried everything else and not much worked. Roaccutane carries warnings of possible mood swings and depression, I think this is probably because before your acne gets better the treatment makes it worse for many weeks. If acne is getting you down anyway the fact that the drug you are pinning your hopes on makes the condition worse is almost heartbreaking. I can't say that I am opposed to an inquiry, the treatment is very aggressive and is very hard to deal with, if you are prepared for that and you have support from family and friends then you'll come through it OK, if not then it will be a very hard time indeed. - Steve, 9:58 PM, This week I tried Sushi for the first time, I'm not a big fish fan so although I have always wanted to try it it's never something that I have really tried to seek out. Living in an Oxfordshire town also limits the amount of outlets locally! Rather than visiting somewhere like Yo Sushi! I had my first Sushi experience traveling South on the M1, somewhere around junction 12. You see, M&S have opened a couple of stores at service stations and they sell lots of nice food, including a few different types of sushi. My verdict? I liked it, not keen on the things with prawns in but the rest was surprisingly nice. I would like to try again but I think this time I might get myself to a proper establishment and sample a wider range. - Steve, 9:35 PM, Firstly: I'm a bit pissed, I haven't drunk a lot but it's had the desired effect. Expect prolonged rambling... It's been a busy week but it hasn't been a particularly exciting one, plenty of work and a lot more miles traveled. It was quite productive I suppose and this is a good thing but work seems to be losing it's "buzz". I'm sure a change is required but it's hard to give up a steady, safe job with reasonable pay and benefits. It was Blur that said "modern life is rubbish" (alright, it was an album title...) and this is the whole point; everything is so expensive in this country that it's far to easy to get trapped by a job that just about gets you through life. Who can afford to take a risk and do something they really love doing? - Steve, 9:25 PM, Sunday, November 07, 2004 Painting Originally uploaded by Saturner. I called in to Ikea on the way home from work on Friday to get one of the big rolls of paper they sell for kids to paint and draw on. It was raining yesterday and I thought it would be ideal to roll one out in the kitchen for Georgia to do some painting, I left her to it while I had a shower and came back to find this! Update: Although the red, yellow and white paint came off the floor after a sustained session with the mop, the blue paint didn't even fade. The floor is now really really clean apart from 27 small blue footprints... - Steve, 10:51 AM, There was a terrible train crash last night, there are some unconfirmed reports that a car was deliberately driven on to the track and the result is six lives lost and many more seriously hurt. If this was a deliberate act I just can't understand the thinking, was it a particularly selfish suicide? - Steve, 9:35 AM, Saturday, November 06, 2004 Oh yes, this is the type of book I find particularly interesting. There is another book I would like to get that, if I remember correctly, describes the lives of the people who live along the A40 in to London. I must look that one up and add a link (if I haven't linked to it here in the past). - Steve, 1:09 PM, Thursday, November 04, 2004 Hotels with Broadband are great aren't they? The hotel I'm staying in tonight doesn't have Broadband, actually this is the sort of hotel where electricity and inside plumbing are not taken for granted. I suppose that when you consider that this place was built almost 150 years ago the fact that you can have a reasonably comfortable stay at all is something of a bonus. So, internet access is courtesy of Nokia 6310i and I'm not even talking GPRS... It's slow going but quite useable, I rely on this type of access most of the working week because if I'm not at home or the main office, it's all I've got. It's a shame really because this laptop is all Wi-Fi'd up but is disabled due to company policy, it's a clear case of fear of new technology holding us back. I know I'm rambling a bit here, been drinking lots of coffee again! I had dinner in the restaurant at the hotel, food was good but the service was pretty poor really. It's the only place I have eaten in where they encourage you to read the menu and make your choices before you get seated, I didn't quite understand this and managed to get myself seated first by just walking in and asking for "A table for one". I hate eating alone in restaurants, I just don't know what to do with myself while waiting so tend to just sit there day-dreaming, it's probably disconcerting for the other diners to have some dodgy bloke next to them with a glazed over expression! My room is about 50ft from the busiest railway line in the country, train noise isn't a problem in this particular room but there seems to be a load of interference from some radios somewhere. I'm listening to some decent Drum&Bass on Radio 1 (not normally my bag) and it cuts out every couple of mins to be replaced by a crackly northern bloke. - Steve, 11:04 PM, War President - Steve, 1:38 PM, Wednesday, November 03, 2004 Ohhh, busted! Ouch! - Steve, 10:26 AM, Tuesday, November 02, 2004 It's been a long day. I've been to a big rail exhibition (as an exhibitor) at the NEC and have spent hours on end stood around wearing a suit and a winning smile... I traveled to the exhibition by train and was late, quite ironic that. The train I was traveling on was delayed due to what I can only assume was a dodgy decision by the signaller in charge of this particular patch. I changed at leamington Spa and caught the Virgin service which eventually ends up in Scotland, the train was 2 mins late arriving at Leamington and was set off behind an EWS freight train that was 325 mins late! Leaminton to Coventry is a single line for part of the streach and that means the passenger train that was almost on time has to wait f*cking ages for the freight train infront to clear and then another coming in the other direction to pass. If they had given the passenger train priority out of Leamington (and they could have because there is a goods line there) it would have resulted in the passenger train being on time and the freight one being a little bit later than the 4.5 hours than it was already! Update: I'm not a Trainspotter, I don't even like trains - Steve, 10:08 PM,


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