All Alone Am I

15 Jan

I've spent half the day speaking on the phone to a colleague in Paris. He's very nice, but speaks so slowly, I keep wanting to finish his sentences for him. It's as if his battery is flat or something, or he needs winding up. I've never met him in person, but he retires next month, so I'm guessing he's 60-ish.

The Dragon is officially ready to fly to Taiwan with the boy at the weekend. I'll miss them. The boy knows he's going to see his relatives in Taiwan on an aeroplane, and yesterday he asked if Mummy and Daddy were coming too. Mummy had to tell him that Daddy wasn't going, and he said he didn't want to go without Daddy. I'm sure he'll have a good time though. And Daddy will catch up with them some time around Valentines day.

16Jan

I'd like to point out that on 21 Oct, I wrote here about the atheist bus campaign and predicted that if buses were to carry atheist advertising banners, that it wouldn't be long before a driver refused to drive one. Guess what, I was right. The guy seems to have got himself a lot of media attention. It's in almost all the papers. And his bosses have said that he doesn't have to drive buses with atheist slogans on if others are available.

I'm wondering whether this guy would have refused to drive a bus carrying an advert for a religion that denies Christianity, like Islam for instance. Would he have refused to drive a bus that advertised a Buddhist prayer meeting, or a Hindi festival, or an event at a seik temple? I'm guessing not, because he has respect for all beliefs (except atheism apparently).

Conversely, would an atheist bus driver have been treated with such understanding had he refused to drive a bus carrying an advert that promised that all atheists were destined to spend eternity burning in a lake of fire? I'm guessing not again. Yet it was just such an advert that prompted the atheist bus campaign in the first place. Thanks to friend Dickie for pointing that one out to me.

There is news to day of a cashpoint machine in Manchester that was loaded incorrectly yesterday, and for six hours it paid out twenties instead of tens. Not a great story in itself except that the cash machine belongs to Nationwide, who were apparently "disappointed" that people took advantage of the free money and didn't report the fault. Apparently a queue formed and some people were using multiple cards to draw larger amounts of cash. I can report however that Nationwide is the worst managed company I have ever had the misfortune to work for. They treat their staff and customers like crap, and the board would sell their own grandmothers for a fast buck. Had I known about it yesterday I'd have motored up there just for the pleasure of shafting them.

19 Jan

I know, I just haven't got around to actually posting anything. Indeed, I haven't really even finished an entry. I'm going to post this today by lunchtime, even if it isn't finished.

We travelled down to Devon on Friday night so that the Dragon and the boy could say goodbye to mother. We didn't have a lot of time since we had to leave soon after breakfast the following day. We got back to Swindon around lunchtime, which gave the Dragon enough time to complete her packing before leaving for the airport.

I put them on a plane on Saturday evening. I won't see them again until mid Feb when I join them. It's not so bad, I have a list of stuff to do in the house, and the world is not such a big place when you have Skype. I called this morning from the train and it seems they landed safely and the boy is now struggling with jet lag.

Yesterday I had the house to myself, and rather than lie on the sofa in my underwear, drinking beer, eating pizza, and farting, I decided to make a start on the list of stuff I need to do around the house. I bolted the power sockets to the wall in the kitchen. They have been hanging by their cables since the tiling was completed. I also re-hung the door in the office, so it now closes, and I took a few mm off the bottom of our bedroom door with the plane so it now closes without scraping the carpet. Not a bad day's work. Next weekend I start work on the bathroom.

And Italy has banned atheist buses. No comment!

It's lunchtime, here it comes.