Pads

I’ve seen a number of pad computers being launched recently. I’m not sure about the pad. I prefer to have a proper keyboard. I don’t see the death of the mouse anytime soon but I know some have predicted it. On the other hand, I enjoy playing with gadgets: so if the price point is affordable I might be encouraged to splash out on one. At the moment though, it is too early to tell whether they will be useful enough.

Labour Leader

I have seen some of the Labour conference in Manchester and in particular the new leader Ed Miliband. I am not very impressed really, I haven’t been interested in politics for a long time and I don’t see that changing. I don’t see any great charisma in this young leader.

Place of my own

Birthday Monday

Another Monday but my son’s birthday today. Hope he enjoys the gifts we’ve bought – I’m sure he will. Birthdays during the school week aren’t quite as much fun as during weekends. But I’m sure he’ll enjoy the day.

We had quite a quiet weekend really, the children had homework to complete and I had some work to do for the judo club. So we did some shopping. The weather wasn’t too great for cycling, so we gave it a miss this weekend.

I began watching the Book of Eli film last night but haven’t yet finished it. Gary Oldman always seems to play baddies.

Changes

There are several changes happening at the moment for me. The mornings and evenings are getting dark much quicker. The week so far has been mild and relatively sunny however today seems to be dark and wet.

Aside from the weather, my work routine is starting to change. I’m travelling to a different office one day a week, it breaks up the week a bit which is okay but I haven’t settled into a pattern yet.

My youngest is starting to get regular homework and it feels like schoolwork is beginning to get serious now. We’re reading at home and I will try to encourage reading and writing for pleasure at home – balancing that with TV and the Wii will be a bit tricky.

My oldest is choosing her big school (secondary/high school) and has to take an exam, she is one of the youngest in her class. I worry what will happen because the schools vary so much in their quality. Some schools are selective so they cream the most academic children, it seems so unfair. It seems too young at 10 to take exams and for such an important thing. The exam is meant to measure ability, so isn’t focused on things you can revise, despite some parents putting extra pressure on their kids. It might seem hypocritical but we have been paying for a private tutor once a week too, that is really just helps a bit with confidence though. I have to confess I am not an academic and didn’t do that well at exams, I have a vocational mind rather than a purely academic one. Probably one of the reasons I haven’t gone back into education during my adult life.

A quiet day

Last night I didn’t feel well at all; streaming nose and headache. This morning I had jippy guts and felt like death warmed up, so I took the decision that it was better I rest at home than try and work. So today I did just that, had quite a nice chilled out day. Did a bit of this, a bit of that, had a little nap and felt better afterwards. I don’t think this cold is going away anytime soon but it was good to have the day off sick and not have to compete with the rest of the world at work.

Tomorrow is probably going to be a different story. I will still have the cold but I won’t get any sympathy and I’ll be expected to catch up. Oh well, at least I’ve had one chilled day this week.

Monday update

The weekend was quite busy for me, we attended another Judo competition on Saturday and my daughter came away with a winners trophy for her weight group. She’s got quite a good collection of them now, bless her tough little cotton socks.

I’m creating a relational database for another local club, so that is forcing me to re-acquaint myself with database design – something I’ve not done for a few years.

We went for a cycle ride as a family on Sunday morning, it was good to be out in the fresh air.

Today, I felt de-motivated at work because of the way a senior manager communicated. You’d think these people in high paid positions would know how to handle people wouldn’t you? Maybe I’m being super-sensitive? I’d like to just say what I think but I know it’s not worth it. 

A song about a bike

I’ve always liked the strangeness of early Pink Floyd, this tune is one of the more accessible ones…

A Strange Occurrence

A couple of times a week I have to catch a particular train for work. In order to do that I have to drive through a village that is apparently one of the most haunted in the county. I’ve never really paid a lot of attention to that before but something happened yesterday that has never happened before to me in quite the same manner.

I was driving along, through the village and was nearly out of it. There is an old cottage with a thatched roof that one year was memorable because it had a thatched spider on top of it. It was a cold but sunny morning and there was condensation on my car when I first started it. But just at the point going through the village near the old cottage the temperature must have dived really suddenly because in a matter of seconds my windows and wing mirrors went from crystal clear to opaque with condensation. It was so sudden I almost began to panic until I realised it was external and I could use my wipers. My wing mirrors took several minutes to clear.

I just it was very odd to experience that sudden drop. Although it could be explained scientifically I’ve no doubt, part of me is susceptible to the notion of the supernatural having some kind of effect. Especially in old villages with probably some unsavoury history.