Odd Thomas Odd Blog

Well, wasn't last night something of an event ... for the UK, at least! There I was, just settling down after a late night and a quick play with my Patapons , when I find myself being unceremoniously re-awakened by Mother Nature having a hissy fit with Market Rasen , at one o'clock in the morning. Bearing in mind I'm over 150 miles away, thats quite a paddy-whack she had on there. Thankfully, she just gave a scolding to the not-so-sleepy little town before skulking off elsewhere so, apart from the single unlucky guy who had a chimney fall on him*, people were more shaken than anything. After feeling the shocks from another quake early last year, it was obvious what this was when it happened, so the only thing I wasn't sure what to expect was its strength and was in two minds about heading outside. Curious to see how many other people had felt it, I immediately switched on LBC to see if any callers mentioned it and, sure enough they did. Whilst some of them knew exac...

So, on rolls Sunday morning and a better-than-expected trip up to the NEC to the Focus on Imaging show, where I met several of the family who also have an aperture interest. I had a vague idea of what to expect having been to several other exhibitions related to work. However, what I didn't expect was the heaving throng that kept me on my toes for the four hours I was there ... or for the second latchee! My cousin and I were queueing at the snack area for a bite to eat when we were joined by a rather large* chap who took to talking to us as if he knew us. Great, a queue jumper. Now I am quite an amiable person and if someone starts talking to me, I will generally listen in the hopes that I don't have to talk too much ... I am the world's worst at small talk! However, my instincts about this guy were not good: there was something about him that made me uneasy, not aided by the fact that he was boasting to me about how much of his club's money he could spend on photogr...

There must be something about me that the strange and unusual are attracted to , ranging from the writing on the bathroom mirror last week to the guy who latched onto me at the Focus on Imaging 2008 exhibition yesterday. Lets start with the writing... I was going through my usual morning routine of being late for work and was just standing up in the bath in order to dry off when I noticed some water on the mirror that I hadn't noticed before. Because the bathroom gets steamed up, any water that gets on the mirror shows up immediately, but this was the first time I had seen this: The supernatural-believer in me reacted with "Who just tried writing my name on my mirror?!" whilst the rational side of me thought, "Cool! What are the chances of that happening?!" Well, the rational side won and I didn't weird out, like I think I might if I ever really saw something supernatural. Interesting that there were no water droplets at the end of the downstrokes though....

I realised tonight, just as I arrived home, that today is the ten-year anniversary of the first day I stepped into my new flat. I can't believe its been that long. So how am I celebrating? By trying to scrape up some money to pay for this quarter's leccie bill that is £50 dearer than this time last year, for less usage: due in part to the warm winter we've had and in part to the fact that my hob broke last year so I haven't been able to cook an egg, let alone the flat!

Last night, I went for my third training run and boy was it cold ... so cold, in fact, that I came close to inverting 'down under' and becoming an Emily !! Thankfully, I had a little foresight to pop into George * on the way home and pick up a pair of jogging pants for the princely sum of £3! Bargain!! I decided to wrap up reasonably warm with my North Face fleece, even though I knew I was going to sweat buckets, reasoning that I could always take it off if I got too hot ... which I invariably did. It didn't stay off for too long though as the cold got to my nipples and made them harder than Vinnie Jones: it was like I was wearing mini Madonna-cones under my shirt. Good job there was nobody around at that time of night or I could have taken a few eyes out!! * * * * * Since Sunday, I have been browsing around trying to find wigs for Biker Betty's birthday this weekend. The theme: wigs and hats. I had gotten the selection down to two, but couldn't decide between e...

As many of you will know, I've been getting pretty agitated with work for a while now and, as such, I have started to look into other employment options. One of those options, is to follow in another's footsteps and become an Assistant Photographer . Okay, so I don't have the HND or appropriate education but should that stop me from trying? For as many people that tell me its a bad idea, I can point out as many people that would tell me its a great idea. I guess only I can really answer that one. Well, as I don't have the training, I made a start on Friday to see if I could build up a portfolio of pictures ... and I don't think I've made a particularly great start! Well, we all have to start somewhere. To kick the evening off, I decided to take some pics with my new running mascot, Squeaker, in order to create my own header for my Great North Run training blog, Sneaker Squeaker . The little mite was into everything and especially enjoyed playing with my lens ...

Does anyone else find it hugely funny that on Valentines day , when guys are strong-armed into 'proving' their love for their partners by filling the pockets of company execs with their hard-earned cash*, Heart FM are playing the 100 greatest break-up songs?! * Me? Cynical? Never!

I often ask myself this question when I feel cornered by work and today is no exception. As per usual, we have a customer who wants something last minute and then buggered off on holiday, so I am left holding the baby, sorting out the IT side for the new website templates, only to find they've done a hatchet job of the content. Unable to let tardiness in presentation get the better of me*, I have ended up sorting out the worst of the content so that it is at least presentable-ish for the time being. All of which has lead to my still being in the office at 9:30 at night, with all of my plans for tonight scrapped. I am not a happy bunny. * Not that I'm top-notch when it comes to presentation, but I can at least make things look acceptable.

That wonderful Easter staple can, this week, be eaten for FREE!! Just print off the voucher at the Woolworths site, take it to your local store and grab yourself a bag of sweet, chocolatey yumminess! Oh yes!!! I wonder how many stores there are around here...

Well, the countdown is on. My training for the Great North Run has now started, as has my training blog, Sneaker Squeaker , and the results of the ballot should be available this Friday. Fingers crossed I will have gotten through the ballot: if I haven't, then I need to decide quickly which charity I want to dig into my savings for*. From here on in, any training details, fitness details, info on tools and equipment, will all be posted to the Sneaker Squeaker blog to keep this one free for my rambles :-) * I've never managed to raise the minimum amount yet and have had to dip into my own pocket to achieve it. I always add something myself anyway, but last time it was a bit too much.

As I suspected, when I arrived for auditions last night I discovered that it had already been cast: hardly surprising since seven people put their names down and the play has a cast of six! So, rather than being an audition, we had a full read of the script to get a feel for the play and, I'm guessing, so that we could get the worst of the laughter out of the way. This proved to be a rather good move on the part of the producer as there were several points where we were all crying with laughter: I just hope the audience react in the same way. To read, the play flows really well. However, with it being a comedy and a split set that relies on direct and indirect interaction between the two sides, the timing is crucial. This worries me a bit as it means that everyone will have to know their lines spot-on... Being the youngest of the three guys that put their names down for this production, I naturally got the part of the youngest character, Nick ... which is really stretching thing...

Something you will always find in an IT department is a number of shelves given over to a range of technical books dating back to the last century - and some might think the century before that! We have a fair range of books to peruse when we get stuck, most of which are several decades old, but a large chunk of which are on loan from our current customer: since we took their IT department it made sense to take their technical reference too. However, there are a couple of only slightly out-of-date books that The Boss bought for a project a couple of years ago and which he kept at home. It is for one of these books that I reached this morning. The interesting thing about picking up a book that The Boss has had at home for a while is what can be found lurking within the pages, i.e. crumbs from some lunch or a piece of paper with odd words on that are not related to the subject matter. What you certainly don't expect to find staring back at you is a pubic hair! I have an uncontrollabl...

Either I'm getting old or I'm just not paying attention to what I'm doing. I know that the former is inevitable, but I'm hoping its the latter that is the cause of my memory problems!! I made some notes at work for stuff to blog about but left them there, so I am sitting at home, scouring the depths of my brain in an effort to remember the important stuff I wanted to blog. Unfortunately, it seems my brain is somewhat vacant at the moment as its just repeating 'tea and lemon' at me and won't let me think of anything else ... I'd best go stick the kettle on ... Okay, I can't remember everything, but here goes... With the play out of the way, rehearsals have been somewhat on the dull side, consisting mostly of over-shopping, over-eating and over-staring at the computer screen, wondering what on earth I'm supposed to be doing with myself. So, when a work colleague offered up the chance of a ticket to see Rich Hall last Thursday at the Watford Palac...

Finally, I have gotten off my widening backside to knock out a quick update! What's the bet this turns into a marathon post?! Well, Thursday finally saw my washer-dryer fixed for the umpteenth time: its only taken 4 weeks and 3 visits to achieve this ... this time. The reason? The engineer who came on the second visit didn't tighten the fan nut properly, so the collet didn't expand to secure the fan in place and it ended up breaking the system. Again. Numpty. I can think of harsher words, but they are not for publishing! All-in-all, its approaching a dozen separate visits to fix the problems with this machine and its barely two years old, yet they still won't replace it. Hotpoint have slipped off the bottom of my list of quality manufacturers now. * * * * * Friday night I popped into a friend's to drop off her birthday pressie and got some excellent news. My friend, unfortunately, has been suffering from Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) ever since an operati...