Scents of Direction

	Scents of Direction


	This is what I think...


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	Friday, April 28, 2006 So, the work night camping was a great success and I'll be doing it again next week (maybe twice). The headphones on my phone stopped working and I didn't take any other entertainment so I had an early night after cooking a sausage balti and having a bottle of Guinness... I slept quite well but I did forget to take a pillow! I woke up quite early (5.45) but felt pretty refreshed, boiled the kettle on my Trangia and then made bacon and egg rolls for breakfast. The washing/toilet block on the campsite was nice and clean and the whole thing was a nice experience, especially when compared to a couple of hours traveling on a busy motorway only to go all the way back a few hours later. I was all packed up and on the road by 7.30am. I think my cow-orkers think I'm a bit weird... - Steve, 9:26 PM, OxblogFest '06 2nd - 3rd June Nr Uffington Listen up Oxfordshire bloggers and blog readers: Who fancies a night under canvas (or High Tenacity HT Nylon, if you're in the 21st Century) sometime soon in the Oxfordshire area? My suggestion is somewhere near the White House Hill in Uffington because you can camp there (I'll check this out) and also it's a good place for kite flying, those of you who are avid readers of Oxfordshire blogs will know that Pete, Sheila and Pfish are pilots of big flying airbeds. An added bonus is that if you don't fancy an overnight stay you can get yourself there in the morning for bacon sarnies, stimulating conversation and kite flying goodness. So, who's interested then? Leave comments below and we can form a collaborative on-line social network to finalise details (or we could just work it out between us) I'm guessing a Friday or Saturday night would be ideal (probably a Saturday?) Spread the word. - Steve, 10:54 AM, Wednesday, April 26, 2006 Night 1 Originally uploaded by Saturner. I am the Ray Mears of the corporate world. - Steve, 7:24 PM, Tonight is the night. Tent is packed, stove is packed, sleeping bags are packed, clothes are packed. Campsite is booked. it's 5pm, I'm thinking of leaving the office in Lichfield soon and I need to be in Crewe in the morning... I won't be going home tonight and no Travelodge for me! - Steve, 5:06 PM, At 9.30am this morning I had my trousers round my ankles and another man was holding my testicles, not exactly the usual start to the day. I've been putting it off for ages, some time ago I "found" something that didn't feel right "down there" and it has been on my mind ever since. I am not a doctor type person, I have been once in the last 6-7 years, but I really needed to go. See, the problem with me is that I am a hypochondriac and I do worry about this sort of stuff, this has been playing on my mind for at least 6 months (it took me that long to pluck up the courage). The longer I left it the more I have been worrying and the more "symptoms" I have been experiencing (damn you Google). I have a stiff neck and some discomfort in my shoulders and under arms... to me that is lymphoma. As it happens I'm probably all right. The doctor examined my balls and was happy that nothing was out of place, what I've been feeling could be caused by a minor skin infection that I can get cleared up. He thinks that the stiff neck and under arm pain are linked and are probably the result of hours in the car and hunched over a laptop, being stressed adds to that too. It actually all makes sense, I have been really worried about this whole situation and I think that has added to the usual stress. It's interesting that after looking at all these symptoms of nasty diseases on the internet I started to feel some of them for real, I think it is all down to the worry. So, I'm going to have some blood tests and a bit more probing in the next couple of weeks but this is just for an MOT type of thing. I'm a big chap and it's sensible to have a thorough check up from time to time. The whole experience was much less traumatic and embarrassing than I thought it would be, I could easily do it all again. I'm sharing this for a couple of reasons but mainly because it gives me a chance to say: "If you are worried, get it checked" I have been dreading this day for some time now and it was very much a non-event. - Steve, 3:17 PM, Tuesday, April 25, 2006 I bought the tent over the weekend and I'm really quite impressed with it, it's up in the garden right now as a trial run and it was easy to pitch, even on my own. I've been doing some sums this afternoon to see what sort of savings I can reasonably expect to make: I'm working on a project that I can expect to be based at for the next couple of years. The office is 72 miles away from my house. If I drove to the office and back every day I would clock up 720 miles per week. If I achieved 45mpg on that run* it would, at current prices, cost almost exactly 10p to travel 1 mile resulting in a £72 weekly fuel bill. Now, if I used the tent on a Monday night and a Thursday night I could lose two round trips (288 miles) and if I worked from home on a Wednesday** I could knock off a further 144 miles. I could quite easily drop from 720 miles per week to 288 miles per week. That would reduce the fuel bill from £72 to £28.80 per week. Even allowing £5 per night for camping fees I could save £33 per week or £132 per month, £1584 per year. That is all very good for my pocket but there is also an environmental factor to consider: My car emits 154 grams of Carbon Dioxide for every kilometre I drive, a weekly saving of 432 miles translates to 695 kilometres, that means that I could emit 107.3kg less CO2 each week by altering my routine, that is 1,287.6kg of CO2 per year. * I can get more mpg than this if I try but 45mpg is about right for a fast drive on a mixture of roads. That's quite reasonable as I'll be able to work longer hours on the other days because I won't have to commute. - Steve, 5:24 PM, Friday, April 21, 2006 So, I finally managed to get a new car on order, I went for: Honda FR-V 2.2i -CTDi Sport** And then added: Leather interior Satellite Navigation Privacy Glass 17" Alloys DVD Player and flip-down screen. Possibly a little extravagant but I spend a lot of time in the car either going to places or working when I'm on the road. It's actually quite a sensible car and I'm really taken by the idea of having three people sitting in the front of the car and the rear seats folded into the floor, it will make shopping at Ikea (and camping trips) a pleasure! It won't arrive for ages as it has to be ordered on the factory, the Passat isn't due back until July anyway so it'll all work out OK. - Steve, 7:36 PM, Wednesday, April 19, 2006 Plane Originally uploaded by Saturner. Took the car to Kidlington for a service today, while it was in there they discovered that the radiator was leaking so they replaced it (glad I don't have to pay). So I had a few hours to kill and once the battery had gone on the laptop I went for a walk, checked out the Honda FR-V just to make sure I really like it (I do, I'm going to order one tomorrow) and then took a wander around the outside of the airfield. I really do like this phone, it's handy having a camera but it's more handy having an mp3 player and radio that is always to hand. - Steve, 3:57 PM, Monday, April 17, 2006 Back to reality tomorrow after taking last week off and this long weekend, do I feel rested? Actually, yes I do. Didn't do a whole lot with the time off but it was good to be off the road for a while. Camping plans are coming along nicely, there are two stages to the plan: Firstly; I want to occasionally stay nearer to work on my own so that I can cut down on the amount of time I spend driving up and down motorways. This will be done in a small cheap tent, if the weather is really bad I'll drive home. Key word here is "Cheap", fuel prices are about to hit record high levels so there are real savings to be made. Second stage is to have a couple of weekends away with the three of us camping, Clare wasn't keen but I managed to get her to have a look at a modern tent (I tricked her a bit to get her there) and she seems to be getting into the idea! When we all go we'll need a bigger tent for a bit of comfort. I don't think we'll try this stage until after our main holiday in August. One thing I did remember is that one of the divisions of the company I work for supplies outdoor/camping/leisure shops with stock, they don't sell to the public but I think there is an employee discount scheme. I'll check this out in the morning because they sell everything from 1-12 man tents to camping stoves. - Steve, 10:38 PM, Thursday, April 13, 2006 An inflatable roof-rack! What a good idea! - Steve, 12:33 AM, Wednesday, April 12, 2006 I'm sure I've mentioned before that I quite like camping but Mrs T isn't at all keen. Well, I've been thinking that it might be a good plan to start camping the odd night while I'm away with work. Sometimes I stay in hotels when I'm away from my usual place of work (at the moment that is Lichfield) and the company pay for that, but when it's just a normal work day I come home in the evenings. My employers pay for some of my fuel, but not all of it. So, the idea is that when I'm working up in Staffordshire I could save the fuel bills by staying locally and camping for the odd evening. It's a win-win because I won't need to keep filling up with diesel, I won't have to spend hours on the motorway before and after work and I can pretend I'm Ray Mears on my own time in the evenings. I also fancy the idea of a nice bottle of Red and a barbecue after work... It's a good idea, right? Anyone know of a good campsite near Lichfield? - Steve, 2:41 PM, Tuesday, April 11, 2006 Two days into my week off and I haven't quite managed to get away from working yet. Alright, I'm not really, really busy or anything but that isn't the point. I'm wasting my life by spending it all at work, I shall try harder tomorrow (although there are a couple of things I have to do in the morning). - Steve, 10:38 PM, Sunday, April 09, 2006 Being something of a news junkie these days I'm often surprised by the events I've lived through which never really registered with me at the time. A couple of weeks ago I was reading about Kelvedon Hatch (ex Cold War secret nuclear bunker) and how, during the Miners Strike in '84, it was at a raised level of preparedness because the government feared the country might descend into civil war. I was 8 years old at the time, all I remember about the miners strike are the news reports showing picket lines and having lots of candles under the stairs at home ready for powercuts. - Steve, 10:46 PM, Friday, April 07, 2006 I'm sure I've said it before: The extra effort you have to put in before and after having a few days off makes it almost not worth it. I've had a crappy couple of days, on Wednesday I didn't get out of the office until around 8pm and at that point I was geographically closer to where I had to be the next morning than home, I decided to stay in a hotel in the town I was heading for. Unfortunately I didn't have any overnight stuff with me so I had to some improvised shopping/laundry/recycling in order to be presentable. Last night I got to my last appointment at 7.45pm and then had to drive the 80 miles home after that. Today I've got loads of stuff to sort out and then I have to go to London to install a database I haven't actually finished building (by a long, long way) I hope I can get a seat and table on the train. - Steve, 8:53 AM, Sunday, April 02, 2006 I've put in a good few hours work this afternoon/evening in an attempt to get a headstart on what is already shaping up to be a stupidly busy week, I'm not sure how much use it will be, or even if I have pointed my efforts in the right direction, but the fact that I have done the groundwork on a couple of tasks is at least something less to worry about when the alarm clock sounds in the morning. In the last half hour or so I have consumed half a bottle of Vodka, it's all part of the same preparation for Monday morning: I want to go to bed in a bit (when the washing machine has finished) and I want to be asleep as quickly as possible, I know that without some sort of chemical assistance it's not going to happen (mind is racing, etc) and Vodka is the only thing I've got to hand. Don't worry about this, it's a small bottle and it's not a habit (I usually don't drink at all). Anyway, the reason I'm putting all this effort in right now is that I have booked next week off work and, for once, I want to spend it doing something other than working. For the last couple of years I have barely had any holiday time at all because the 'phone still rings and I can't help but check email a few times each day, this isn't the result of being a workaholic or a high flyer, it's mainly just poor preparation and a fear of delegation. Still only halfway through the spin cycle... - Steve, 11:02 PM, Saturday, April 01, 2006 I'm such an idiot, I listened to the Today Programme this morning, heard the part about the UK theme being replaced by the Euro theme and didn't realise it was an April Fool (see the bottom of here).. I thought it was a surprising move! - Steve, 9:31 PM, One of six men who fell seriously ill after a drug trial said he and the others are "furious" about the ordeal. I don't think they really have any right to be furious, they put themselves in that situation on purpose (for a substantial amount of money) and a reaction to the drugs must always have been a possibility. People have to be responsible for their actions; I didn't volunteer to test any new drugs so I'm sat in my kitchen without an extra £2k, but I'm feeling alright. You don't get owt for nowt. - Steve, 9:47 AM,


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