Dead Hardware

Happy new year to everyone. I haven't written here since before Christmas due to a full schedule that involved trips to Cambridgeshire (it was knee deep in snow), and Devon (it was Christmas). Also our primary computer has finally passed away after a long illness. I'm currently investigating what to do about a replacement, but until such time as I get around to actually doing something about it, we're working on laptop power.

Christmas was pretty good for us, though busy. We journeyed down to Devon on Christmas eve and rendezvoused with Mother and my brother. I'd upload some pictures, but I have no ftp software on this laptop and honestly, it's probably better if I keep personal pictures off my work machine anyway. I think the Dragon may upload a few videos to her YouTube channel. It's in Chinese, but who needs to be able to translate to see a few movies. I think I may have gained a little weight over the festive season. I really have to do something this year about getting into shape. I'm not making a resolution, I'm just saying. I look like a walrus. I don't smell of fish though.

I've decided to make a few predictions for 2010. If psychics can do it then so can I. I wonder if I thought about doing this last year. I should check back and have a look. Anyway, here are my predictions for 2010. The plan is to revisit in 2011 and see how well I did.:

Deaths:
Amy Winehouse
Pete Doherty
Nick Griffin (I hope)
Duke of Edinburgh

Politics:
General election in UK on 25th March or 6th May. Conservatives win with a landslide. Brown retires from politics and goes into teaching.

Science:
Major physics breakthrough mid 2010.
Further doubt cast over global warming data not fitting the publicly accepted conclusions.

Natural disasters:
Typhoon in Taiwan in summer months.
Earthquakes in Japan.

There's more, I just haven't thought of it yet.

The world's tallest building has just opened in Dubai and it's 800m tall. Sorry, but that is just taking the piss. It takes about 5 minutes just to walk 800m in a straight line! That's about 300m taller than the previous record holder in Taipei. That's a Taipei 101 with an Eiffel tower on top of it. I'm all for impressive architecture, but that is just too tall. It can't be safe. I wonder how far down it goes under the ground.

Talking of ridiculous, how's this for you; I called my doctor last week because the dragon is going to take the boy to Taiwan for a month and we wanted to get him immunised against swine flu before he goes. The receptionist told me that they weren't taking appointments yet and to ring back the following week. So I rang back yesterday, the first day of the following week, explained the situation again and was told, "there are no appointments available, you left it too late". I had one of those moments where I put the phone down and then wished I'd shouted at the dozy cow.

The whole absurdity of the situation hit me like a wrecking ball about 10 seconds after the conversation ended, "they told me last week it was too early to make an appointment and they told me this week that I'd left it too late!" Angry doesn't come very naturally to me, but I realised I should be, so I called them straight back and demanded to speak to the practice manager. Rather disappointingly she was not available, but I took a name and resolved to call her the following day and be angry with her. Again, rather disappointingly, after working myself up for a fight, she was very apologetic today when I spoke to her and in fact offered me an appointment on Thursday. So the boy is getting stabbed with a needle on Wednesday.

So, from mid January I will be left alone as my wife takes the boy to Taiwan. That means I can eat things that they don't like. Yesterday I bought two packs of diced game to put in the freezer. It was on offer at Tesco. The dragon actually liked it until she found out that game could include rabbits and deer. Anyway, I have two weeks to eat this stuff before I go out there to join them.

I wonder whether they will have full body scanning machines at the airport by the time I fly. They have already confirmed that they are going to install them at Heathrow. As a right-thinking libertarian I am of course appalled by the prospect of these machines invading my privacy and assaulting my civil liberties. As a fun loving exhibitionist I can't wait to give them a go. Apparently they can see body piercing, which gives me the opportunity to remove it, or leave it in and see what happens. I'll let you know how that goes.

It's cold here in Blighty. It's hardly made it above freezing point for the last few days and there is snow on the ground in Swindon. More snow is promised today. I'm not a big fan of snow. The dragon likes it because it's a novelty for her. The boy likes it because he can chuck snowballs around. I see it simply as an accident waiting to happen.

My office has fresh fruit delivered every Monday and it's free to us headcounts. Today I have eaten two bananas already. I'm thinking about going for a satsuma. I'm still eating leftovers from Christmas for lunch. I had stilton and crackers today. We've finished the mince pies and cake now. I think we still have biscuits and chocolate left.

Going to leave it here because it's snowing and I want to go home.