Odd Thomas Odd Blog

Well, as of 6pm tonight, I am officially the only one in the office for the next fortnight! With three people leaving in July and August, one off on a three-month sabbatical across the US with his other half, and another off on a two week break, we're now back down to the staffing levels we had about 8 months ago. It wouldn't be so bad, but half the work that needs to be done I know nothing about, so it looks like I'll be kept on my toes for a while. Aaaanyhoo, I am aware that my last post was not only lengthy, but a bit whingy, so its probably best that I stay off the work topic tonight and try to avoid the step-by-step accounts that make for good sleeping material! Last night, I was introduced to my new favourite series: Weeds . How great is this series?! I don't have Sky, so I have to make do with Sky Three on digital terrestrial and happened to stumble on it last night. I had never really paid any attention to the adverts for it before, but I caught the announcer ...

How often have you felt the need to wave your hands in the air and scream like a man possessed? And then follow that up by throwing yourself through a window with all the grace and panache of a breeze-block? Never? Okay, just me then! Yesterday, I had the pleasure of travelling to Leeds to one of our customer's regional offices. Because of everything going on around this latest project, I wasn't expecting it to be amongst the best days going ... and it wasn't ... The first sign that the day wasn't going to be amongst the best was when my neighbours downstairs returned from a night out at 2:15 this morning, turned on some annoying beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-y music, and proceeded to chat and laugh until after I left for Leeds ... at 6:00 in the morning. Needless to say, I wasn't the most alert person with only a couple of hours sleep under my heavy eyelids!! Unfortunately, when I set off I realised I was TomTom-less, so spent half-an-hour driving to work o...

I was just having a browse at some other blogs and stumbled on Paul Enderson's blog that included a video for a guy called Janez Jevnikar doing some spray-paint sci-fi art. Seriously impressive stuff... Spray Paint Art 1 - For more of the funniest videos, click here You can check out Janez' website here , though unfortunately there are only a couple of videos and there is not much by way of a gallery.

Today, I made a bit of a faux pas. Earlier in the week, it was my friend Abi's birthday and today she was having a BBQ to celebrate. Because I am so far behind with my studying, I figured on doing as much of this as possible and heading over there early evening, on the basis that if I went to the BBQ first I would spend the rest of the day there and get absolutely no studying done. What I didn't count on was everything wrapping up early. All the BBQs I have been to in the past have gone on well into the evening so I made the assumption that the same would happen here and that things would probably be a little more chilled by then. 7pm was my target time for leaving work*, but I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, so I stayed a bit longer. By 8pm, everyone had apparently gone home and they were in the process of clearing up. Some friend I turned out to be. Sorry, Abi. * Its easier to study at work as I have proper desk space there ... otherwise, I end up falling asleep...

So, you're probably wondering how it went on Thursday afternoon with the life coach? Okay, probably not, as chan ces are that I have spoken to you since then!! However, for those of you out of the loop for various reasons, then here's what happened... Those who know me well, know that I am not the bravest of people and so tend not to be very adventurous ... unless I can goad someone into keeping me company! As such, the thoughts of heading off to the life coach, driving round the really big parts of the M25 and into places I've never been before, sent my body into panic spasms that kept me bouncing back to the gents as though I'd got my knicker-elastic* caught in the toilet seat. Luckily, at that time of day the traffic wasn't too bad and I managed to get there a full 15 minutes before I was due, which gave me time to calm my system down. As luck would have it, LBC was having an holistic session where a guest was offering advice to callers. One young caller suff...

If you want to have a chuckle at a bad choice of words, take a look at this post by my mate, Foshie . You can see the original article at the Unison website. :-D

I hate to say it, but I have been a totally miserable git this past week, hence the reason for not posting. That, and the fact that I have been totally snowed under with both work and studying. Work is currently the usual slog of trying to get things done while people are off on holiday and having to defend myself against other peoples inactions and inadequacies, whilst as far as the studying goes, I am so far behind that my next assignment is nearly 3 weeks overdue and so is not likely to get marked :-( In the midst of all this, there is always a moment (or two), where I feel the need to take a break and step away from it all. On Saturday, I did exactly that and met J&A in town for a couple of drinks down at Caffé Nero * and, for a change, experienced something new. I started off with the usual cappucino that I drown in sugar to take away some of the sharpness of the coffee, and was then bought a Chai Latte . I'm not a big fan of really milky tea, and the idea of drinking it w...