Scents of Direction

	Scents of Direction


	This is what I think...


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	Friday, April 29, 2005 Ahh, the internet is a wonderful thing. Having read this innocuous post over at gaekwad's place I checked out this site, dowloaded this mp3 (and snaffled a couple of others) and have dicovered a new favouite tune that has been rocking my world all week. This may be a silly question, but what music genre would this fit in to? - Steve, 8:46 PM, When did they start saying "the next station stop" on trains? Do you know what I mean? I'm sure the on-train tannoy announcer (probably now a "train manager") used to say something along the lines of "Ladies and gentlemen, the next stop will be Didcot Station, please remember to take all your belongings with you when leaving the train" Now (and I've noticed it on most of the different train operators) they will always say: "Ladies and gentlemen, the next stop will be Didcot Station, Didcot Station will be our next station stop, please remember to take all your belongings with you when leaving the train" Do we really need the extra clarification of station stop? Do they think that people will be prying the doors open if the train stops when it's not at a station? I bet it's all down to a memo. - Steve, 8:14 PM, Seriously scary news from Cambodia. Where's my baseball bat? - Steve, 8:11 PM, And relax... another crappy week bites the dust. Same old; lots of miles travelled in cars and trains, same offices, same hotel, same slow progress. On a brighter note, it's the weekend and it's Mayday on Saturday. Will I be seeing you on Magdalen Bridge at dawn on Sunday? - Steve, 8:04 PM, Monday, April 25, 2005 If you want a decent Hotel at Travel Lodge prices then Laterooms is your friend. - Steve, 8:55 AM, Friday, April 22, 2005 I took a later train in to London this week and in addition to it being half the price, it was full of all sorts of different people from the usual crowd of bleary eyed commuters. At High Wycombe an old lady got on and sat opposite me. She was probably around mid 70's, she had white hair, a blue coat that all old ladies wear and a wicker shopping basket. She read the paper for a while and then started making notes on an XDA II! At Gerrards Cross A girl of about 19 or 20 boarded, she was wearing a sharp black suit, carrying a briefcase and was wearing Gucci Sunglasses. She was also wearing a top that was so low cut that you could see the top and bottom of her tits! - Steve, 9:15 PM, Wednesday, April 20, 2005 I get paid on Friday, that means that this week feel a whole lot longer than any of the last three. I've been up in the North West for a couple of days, tomorrow I'll be in London (Euston) and on Friday back up North. I have been filling in forms to get a company Credit Card, that should make life easier although the temptation to blow the lot at Dominoes will have to be resisted It looks like I'm going to be based full time at a new project which will either be in Bedford or Nuneaton, not sure which would be easier to get to each day, probably not much in it. Beard is coming on well, but it's getting alarmingly ginger in certain lights. I have no more news. - Steve, 9:31 PM, Friday, April 15, 2005 It's a double edged sword; having a wife who stays at home in the day with access to all sorts of home shopping outlets. The bad point is that all the money gets spent, but the good point is that occasionally I come home from work and cool stuff has been delivered! The latest delivery is a Kenwood Smoothie Maker. I didn't realise I even had an interest in making (or drinking) smoothies but, excuse my lack of modesty here, I'm a chuffing expert! Firstly, we've never had a machine of this sort before nor have we had any food processors or anything like that, there is I suppose a novelty value of a machine with big spinning blades inside. Secondly, it's a really well designed machine, I've said it before but I really do like stuff that does what it should with no fuss or unnecessary complexity. The idea is that you get a load of your favourite fruit or vegetables, chuck 'em in the machine with some liquid (like yoghurt or juice) and whizz them up in to a nice drink. The results have been quite spectacular! In the last two days we have made smoothies with: Strawberry Kiwi Orange Juice Ice Grapes Kiwi Apples Oranges Orange Juice Ice Yoghurt Apple Grapes Kiwi Apple Orange Banana Carrot Ice Frozen Coffee Yoghurt Banana Chocolate All of these were really nice, the second was the best and the coffee one was the most interesting. The good thing about these drinks is that they are pretty much just fresh fruit and I vary rarely eat fruit normally, I must have had my five-a-day today and yesterday which is a very good thing. - Steve, 11:18 PM, I'm not really much of a gamer, I'll play a bit on the Playstation 2 but It's rare that I really get in to a game and spend a lot of time playing. Clare, on the other hand, plays a lot on the Playstation and PC games, so I bought her a Gameboy Advance SP for her birthday in March. She swore she really wanted one and I just knew she would only use it a few times, I was right! So we've got a Gameboy thing that never gets used and I've started thinking that it might be useful for other stuff. The best thing about it is it's handy size, it really is properly portable and the second good thing is the screen which is quite bright and clear. I was on the train home from London last night and although I did have a seat, I didn't have one with a table in front so I couldn't really get the laptop out to read the ebook I wanted to (Still Crime and Punishment), so I spent the hour just looking vacant and menacing. What I want is to be able to read a .txt file on the Gameboy, simple as that, it looks like I can if I get the movie player. I don't really want to be watching movie files on it, but you never know when that might be handy. Same with mp3's, not really what I'm after but could be useful. I'm really thinking of buying the adapter to give it a try, I like the fact that it uses CF cards because I've got one and I could fit quite a few books on it. So, I could have a train and tube friendly ebook reader... just like a real book is. - Steve, 9:37 PM, Saturday, April 09, 2005 The government is prepared to give more money on top of the £40m already pledged to help firms hit by the MG Rover crisis, the chancellor has said. I suppose that is good news for the firms that need it, but I still can't understand why this money is being made available in the first place. A private company goes in to administration and that will have knock-on effects for other private companies, it happens all the time but I doubt the government wades in with piles of my (and your) cash each time. Why is this collapse so special? Are they rewarding suppliers for not diversifying? - Steve, 8:02 PM, Urban decay pool on Flickr, lots of these shots look quite beautiful on screen, even if you wouldn't want to live next door to them. I especially like the abandoned shots - Steve, 6:11 PM, Over the last couple of weeks our TV has started to be a bit temperamental, when it's on it's normally OK but it sometimes won't switch from "standby" to "on". If it is playing up then a good shake seems to sort it out but I think it's on it's last legs and it's around 6 years old now, time for a new one. The requirements for a new TV are It must be cheap It should be widescreen because most programmes are transmitted in widescreen format now and I get annoyed at missing the edges (especially when there are subtitles) The screen must be somewhere around 28" The TV case can't be wider than 32" or it won't fit in our Ikea unit thing. It needs a couple of Scart sockets at least We have gone for this one which is only £180, cheap and cheerful. Hopefully the old one will last for a bit longer and it can replace the 14" portable that lives upstairs. - Steve, 3:52 PM, Some great laugh-out-loud tales over at Randon acts of Reality this week, always a good read too. - Steve, 3:27 PM, Feeling much better now, an embarrassing rant and some swearyness works wonders. - Steve, 3:26 PM, Friday, April 08, 2005 Somewhere between 5pm and 6pm tonight my mood changed from "neutral" to "big grumpy bastard", I felt it coming too as I made my way home, it's like dark storm clouds approaching from the horizon. I'm not trying to be poetic and I'm not an angst ridden complicated being, that's just the way it feels to me and it happens quite often, normally at the end of a busy day. I think I put my finger on why it's happening: I find myself completely fucking boring. Imagine having a flatmate who just gets on your nerves so much that you hate spending time together, well I'm like that all on my own and it's really starting to piss me off. Although I'm not one of those people who love their job and get a sense of achievement from it, mine isn't too bad really and I suppose I do feel good after a productive day. It's the time after work and before going to bed that I need to do something with, it's these times when I bore myself by watching shit on the TV that I have no interest in or reading pages of news that's not relevant to me. On the bright side (not that I can see it from in this gloomy place) Summer is on it's way (although we had snow today, in April) so at least I'll have the oppertunity to get out there and do something even if I don't have the energy. - Steve, 11:17 PM, Monday, April 04, 2005 I normally prefer coffee rather than tea but I'm always up for trying some of those speciality teas that you sometimes get in hotel rooms. Today I've opted for a Twinings "Blackcurrant Ginseng & Vanilla", very nice it is too, but what with the blackcurrant colour and the string and all, it looks a little bit...er.. menstrual! Still, bottoms up! - Steve, 6:51 PM, A crappy start to the day. When I was about 5 minutes in to my commute this morning I realised I had left my USB Flash Drive at home, normally I would leave it there but I had put all the files I need for the next couple of days on it so I had to go back. It's a shame that those 5 minutes put me right at the bottom of the Motorway slip road so I had to travel up to Banbury in order to turn round and go back home, all this on a day when I had actually managed to get out of the house on time. Things are looking up though, I'm staying in a hotel tonight that caters perfectly for the business traveler, it has the sort of environment that promotes productivity (unlike the office) so I foresee a productive, macchiato fuelled, late night work session which should help me to catch up a bit. - Steve, 1:03 PM, Sunday, April 03, 2005 I quite like the idea of an MP3 player built in to a watch, I wonder if it's any good? I can't really justify spending any cash on one, but I don't actually have a watch at the moment so... - Steve, 6:40 PM, Sometimes you see something new and it just strikes you that it is a fantastic idea, just like a Bike Tree. It's a great way to clear bikes from street level where they take up lots of space and are vulnerable to vandalism and theft plus it's a good looking structure in it's own right. Check out the demonstration video on the about page. It makes sense to me as an automatic bike hire terminal: you can get off the train, swipe your credit card at the bike tree and then ride the bike for the day before returning it to the bike tree when you are ready to go home. If there were more bike trees in the popular business/commercial areas of the city then you are sorted for secure storage or one-way trips. I totally get it. UPDATE: See here also - Steve, 1:18 PM, Saturday, April 02, 2005 In one recent incident, a woman handed over £400 in a car park to two men for a laptop and was given a case she later found to contain water bottles. If you're buying a laptop from a couple of blokes in a car-park then you should really expect some dodgy dealings to be going on, the fact that it was you getting ripped off rather than some poor sod who had their laptop nicked serves you right. - Steve, 11:17 PM, If you are not the first owner or occupier of your house then you'll probably have wondered who lived there before you and been interested in the history of the place. I have never lived anywhere older than a house built in the sixties and my parents owned that from new, I can't imagine living in a house with a history stretching back over 500 years. This page has been created by the owner of an old house in Abingdon and it is fascinating, I'm amazed at the level of detail he has managed to uncover. - Steve, 5:41 PM, Friday, April 01, 2005 I find this pretty disturbing - Steve, 6:37 PM, I know I've tried it before but I am once again attempting to grow a beard. I'm about a week in to it (4 day holiday over Easter got it started) and it's still at the scruffy stage. I think I chickened out a bit too early last time and shaved it off before it was ~~ripe~~ mature. It's probably a good idea to have a target date in mind before making decisions on keeping or shaving, so I'll aim for six weeks and then I'll review the progress. Maybe I'll put before and after pictures up here and have a vote... I've done a bit of googleing (googling?) for hints and tips on beard growing and the consensus seems to be: Don't shave err.. that's it. Easy, see? - Steve, 12:09 AM,


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