I’m completely unable to express myself at the moment…
The heat is unbearable, the air is heavy with storm. We even got teased with 5 minutes of rain after the past half hour of lightning and thunder, but no satisfying downpour yet.
The weather better cool down tomorrow, or I’m camping in the shopping centre – the only air conditioned spot around work.
Sleeping isn’t going to be easy tonight :S
Since leaving early Wednesday afternoon to go meet my friends as they came off the Heathrow-Cambridge bus (National Express, if you ever need a good reliable bus to/from locations around the country from the airports), I’ve had one of the best very-long weekends I’ve had in a long long time.
Thursday, we took it easy as they were still slightly jetlagged, but went to Cambridge later in the day. After slightly drizzly weather, we managed to see a good part of beautiful Cambridge. Our afternoon out ended with a visit to the Boathouse pub, along the Cam and a night out at a curry house (the name escapes me now…). Ben & Andréanne got to meet some true English people, with the accent, the jokes and everything! 😉
Friday was spent walking around London. We trekked from King’s Cross to Covent Garden, had a bite at Wagamama’s and walked around Jubilee Market. A round on the London Eye and we started making our way towards the Tate Gallery. Unfortunately, by that time, the museum was closed so we walked to Pimlico and headed back home. All in all, a good view of London for them while dodging the overly touristy activities (ie. bus tours)
On Saturday, the boys went up in a plane, but that’ll be worth another post of its own along with some photos…
The weekend flew by as Sunday was the BBQ day. “The best steak in the world” was made on the BBQ, quoting Andréanne’s brother Charles. Great fun, lots of beer and mountains of food were served up. Charles and two friends who are getting to the end of their trip around Europe stayed with us that night.
Unfortunately, Monday came too quickly for Andréanne who was destined to head out to Denmark for a semester of studies. And Tuesday came too soon for me who had to go back to work… Still time for a quick pint with Ben tonight before he flies back to Canada tomorrow!
Fantastic weekend, some photos and video to come to back that statement! 😉
There were rumours, there were whispers, now it’s here.
Google Talk may be fashionably late in an already busy online voice chat world, but by working on principles different to the other IM/VoIP systems, it might already be winning the heart of some users.
AOL, MSN and Yahoo try to ensure that their users talk to no others simply because they fear that opening up their networks will dilute their hold and reduce the amount of cash they can generate from all these people.By contrast, Google Talk is based on an open technology called Jabber which was created to help different networks talk to each other.
There is method to Google’s seeming madness. It is clear that Google is trying to build a cluster of programs that effectively turns the net into an operating system – just like Windows does for personal computers.
If anyone’s using it already, let me know… I’ve yet to find anyone to chat with, so I can’t really comment on how I find this version.
This afternoon, I finished work early to go meet my friends Ben & Andréanne who are visiting from Ottawa. It’s so good to see some friends from home!
We’ll be taking some video to send to their mommies this weekend to confirm they’re still alive. Mommies are always so concerned and worried for their littluns, no matter how old they are. Oh yeah and may I say, my weekend has already started – Off work Thursday & Friday, and Monday is a bank holiday. Sweeeeet, a 5 day holiday!
“Over six feet tall, blonde and clad in a suit, the strange figure dubbed the “Piano Man” was found wandering along a beach in Kent, south-east England in early April. His clothes were drenched, and all the labels had been ripped out. Nothing about his person gave any clues whatsoever as to his identity, and he appeared unable to speak.”
For the past few months, theories have been thrown all over the place about the past of this so-called piano virtuoso. The BBC has now reported the man has returned to Germany and is in a stable mental state.
While the Beebs says the bare minimum about the discharge of the mysterious patient, Deutche Welle calls the man a hoax, claiming he was suicidal when the police found him, had previously worked with mentally ill patients and had mirrored their behaviour while in care. “Reports that he astonished staff at the Little Brook Hospital in Dartford with his virtuoso playing were grossly exaggerated, said the paper. In fact, all he ever did was tap one key over and over again.”
DW also goes as far as writing that “with the Piano Man now back in Germany, the Mirror also reports that doctors are considering suing their former patient, arguing that his treatment cost the cash-strapped National Health Service thousands of pounds and wasted expert time.”
I bet Hollywood was gagging for a good story out of this…
[Update: He wasn’t faking his psychotic episode, says the Beebs.]
The video of our new house, nearly 3 months after moving in!!! [Do “save as…” and save it to your computer before watching… it’s the better way to do it…]
I kept getting told off for not having made a video by the whole family, so it was about time. Spot the photo of Véro & Jo when we were kids… 😉
Last Friday was our summer staff party, so I’ve popped the photos online. I believe mom approves of the team. 😉
Woke up thinking it was Saturday – Mood +7
Realised it was only Friday and I had to get up – Mood down to -2
Had a fantastic shower thanks to our newly fitted boiler – Mood back up to +5
Looked outside and realized it’s looking darker than it should for morning and it’s pissing it down with rain – Mood down to -1
Get to work and not many people in, all on holiday = no team pub lunch – Mood crashes to -5
Productive meeting with manager – Mood slowly back up to +1
Remembering I have some nice cold drinks in the fridge waiting for me to get home tonight – Mood +5
Coming to the realisation that we have a free weekend and can actually work on home improvements, read a book, relax a bit for once! – Mood soars up to +10
Ahhh Friday mood swings!
Our boiler was replaced for a better, high-efficiency one over the past two days and today I was actually quite excited to get home and see how our heating and water pressure had improved! How incredibly middle-aged of me!
But it was SOOOO worth it, I had the best shower I’ve had in a long time as soon as we got home. And we’ll be able to heat the house so easily when winter comes.
Beyond the difference in quality of life through a good shower in the morning, what was thrilling about it was that it’s OUR house and any changes we make add value to the house. Every time I’ve lived in rented accommodation, if the shower sucked, that was the end of the story. Deal with it. While now, we had the power to make a change like that and we’ll benefit from it every morning until we sell the house, at which point it’ll be a helpful selling point!
Owning a house rocks!
PS – And I’m back, Jo, break’s over! 😉
that canadian girl 