emchi.co.uk

Yes I know I’m “borrowing” the title of a Grey’s Anatomy episode, but well, it has got to come.

I’m ill, again, for the third time in two months.  Another infection, leaving me incredibly short of breath, prone to loosing my voice and completely exhausted.  My boss is pissed at me because I’m ill again.  I can’t help it.  It’s not like I’m trying to fake it.  I don’t feeling like this.

So anyway, having moved out of London, I’ve got to find something to make me feel more justified about this being the right thing to have done.  I know it is, I love being out in the country, I just don’t feeling like crap and just generally not enjoying life.

I’ve signed up for a degree and I’m doing a PRINCE2 course finally.  Am I the only person in the world who wants her (and his) life to have some kind of meaning, not just the day to day, hand to mouth existence that feels forced upon me?

So I’ve been looking at the new and refreshed friends re-united.  I’ll get onto how I “broke” it more than once in a bit.  However I wanted to make some observations about the application as a whole. 

Do people seriously care so much about what others think of them that they still feel the need to gloat?  I mean c’mon, we’re over thirty now (well most of us).  Does it matter where you went to university? Does it matter what you do?  Do you care so much about getting “one up” on the rest of the world? 

Yes, I have a profile on there, but my whistful ways are wondering, what’s the point in gloating?  (I don’t think I do anymore).  If you are happy then that is all that matters.  I will admit to having a moment where I went “yes, the obnoxious bitch is doing worse than me”… only because it would appear, karma, has played a poingiant role in this instance.

So honestly, what is the point in Friends Reunited?  It’s like an early version of Facebook, but only for people you were forced to spend time with rather than chose to.  Does it translate well into Web 2.0? No. It doesn’t appear all that different to it’s previous version.  Only now it’s free to use. 

It would also appear that the site was not tested properly before launch.  Otherwise how could I have broken it so easily? It’s slow, the pages lag, the back button is less than reliable and pages do not update with information quickly.  C’mon guys, you’re owned by BT now, you should know how to develop a website that does what it’s supposed to do. 

Sorry it’s been a bit quiet around here at the moment.  Not much going on, but I’m very stressed at the moment.  To the point where I’ve got dermatitis on both hands, a buggered neck and I’m clenching my teeth when I sleep.  It’s not a good time at Chez Emchi.

The puppy is still Pupzilla.  Although we’re now allowed to take the monkey out for a walk.  Or she takes us out for a walk.  Not quite worked it out yet.  Anyway she keeps doing reasonably cute things.  Like this morning she trotted out to the bathroom dragging her lead behind her, then sat down, picked up the handle and started wagging her tail at me.  I think she knows what walkies is. 

On her first real walk, we’ve found the following out:

• She doesn’t like diesil engines
• She doesn’t like manhole covers that rock (freaks her out big time)
• She doesn’t like old men (she went nuts when one tried to pet her, yelping for ages… tad embarassing)
• She loves grass, she likes lying in it and rolling around in it and would happily spend all day in it.

Oh, she snores… which is really funny.  She also finishes her food, puts her front paws on the sofa cushion and burps in R’s face… without fail.  Oh and Wednesday was the first time she did a stinky fart… which cleared the room.  When it was safe to come back we sat down and cried with laughter… the things you remember eh?

In other news the water softner decided to play up and then the dishwasher went out on strike in sympathy.  I had to laugh.  Both appear to be fixed now.  Water softner had not been working since we moved in it would seem.  A bit of fiddling and hey presto, all is well in water land.

This week’s observations:

• I still miss Somerset.  There’s something calming about being “home”.  The lush green trees, the atmosphere is different.  It’s like a little bubble, nothing outside matters. 
• Manners cost nothing.  So why did I have someone say ’scuse me, then barge straight past me without giving me chance to move or saying “please”.  All this in Marlborough no less.
• Our garden gets closer to a jungle with every day that passes.
• I like watching the puppy sleep.  She looks so cute with each different position she wiggles into.  It can’t be comfortable but I can’t help myself.
• I keep thinking of really good things to write about when I’m driving, or cooking or well anything that is not conducive to having a pen and paper to hand. 
• I’m fed up of adverts for Bingo… They’re all a little, chavy. 
• I’m caught in a bit of a head spin about religion following a very strange conversation with my best friend and her boyfriend.  I’m unable to reconcile things at the moment.
• There’s got to be something slightly wrong about a good salacious scent.  Like fresh coffee beans or new perfume.

Well interesting few days.  I spent Friday and Saturday in London attending the Nielsen Norman Group conference on Intranet Usability.  Really interesting, best thing I’ve been to in a very long time. Hopefully I’ll get to apply some of what I learnt to my job.  Still it was exhausting, lack of sleep the night before, and staying up late talking to my best friend, all but did me in. 

Today I’ve done a mad dash to find puppy food (as she’s stopped eating the food for older dogs we were told to feed her), done the food shopping, watched the Grand Prix and baked a cake.  Yes, all in that order, I’ve still got the housework to do yet.

Brilliant Grand Prix today, Lewis deserved to win.  Which leads me onto something interesting I read on auto blog.  Apparently, Richard Hammond is going to be the F1 presenter when it goes to BBC next year.  If it’s true, then rock on!  Now all we need is someone like Suzi Perry to do the pit commentary.  I wonder who will do race commentary, I hope Martin Brundle moves, I like his commentary.  Perhaps Murray will come back?  Who knows. 

Anyway, I’m thinking of some blog posts on usability following the conference.  More soon!

There was a Royal wedding yesterday.  That does not bother me, good for happiness to happen.  No, what bothers me is the news reporting that the wedding dress designer was a London one, when I know this not to be true.  For Sassi Holford is a Taunton designer.  I know, I stood on many occasions staring at the latest dress hanging in her shop window. 

The shop, near the bridge in town, opposite the entrance to Goodlands Gardens, is a small place.  I cannot remember what it was before.  Every week the dress would change and I would steal a glance at the latest design.  Often walking out of my way just to look.  Like a child marvelling at the latest toy in the shop window.  It was of forbidden hopes and dreams.  Imagining myself in the latest design.  I could not see the person who I would be marrying, or maybe I could, but these thoughts were wrong, just whimsical fancy. 

So to hear something that you know to be a lie, it surfaces the forbidden and long forgotten dreams.  Now I know, these things are things that happen to other people, yet it still does not stop me dreaming of the dress.  It’s magical properties making you the only person on the planet that matters, for a few short hours anyway. 

Blogging is an interesting subject matter, and one that is topic du jour.  More to the point, the use of blog content to sell newspapers.  At the moment it seems to be the Daily Snail (Mail) who either steal content or defame people who have blogs.  So, NML, who has been defamed by those idiots over at the Daily Snail, has put out the word, that she wants to set the record straight, and so she should.  Shame on reporters who make things up, just to try and sell papers.  Papers that are worth nothing more than floor covering for puppies.  Anyway, below is the post that Natalie has published.  You can get to Natalie’s site by clicking on the link under the post.

I will admit this does feel a little like the bit in Hackers (yeah I know) where the word goes out to “Hack the Planet!”.  Blogs are a right for all those who have them.  Freedom of speech reigns in countries that permit it.  So we should all stand together united.

“Thursday, May 08, 2008

One suspects I might be slightly crazy, not only did I go to Ikea specifically for the purpose of buying things the puppy would like, I spent quite a bit of money on her.

I bought something R has described as a Kangabunny… (don’t ask, I said it was a bunny and R said it was a kangaroo), and a big blue Loch Ness monster, that looks, well, deranged.  Seriously, deranged.  Anyway, we’re now proceeding to take it in turns to hug the toys and the blanket and the cushion.  Now that makes us deranged doesn’t it?  Apparently the puppy will need things that smell like us in order to familiarise herself with us. 

So, I’ve spent the afternoon puppy proofing the place, OK, so the kitchen, larder, utility area and bathroom.  I’m not doing the hall on my own.  It’s hard work this puppy business, and we haven’t even got the little monkey yet. 

In a rather hillarious (well I think it is) send up on the “things to do before you are…” I thought I would put it out to the challenge (ok all of my four or five regular readers).  I’m 31 on Monday, I have the next four days off, I can’t afford to do anything now (thanks car, really appreciate it).  So, can anyone think of anything stupid and cheap I do before I turn 31?  (you know, I know, nobody will post a comment). 

I’ll post a semi humours attempt of things I want to do before I’m 30 (no that’s not a typo, I think it’ll be funny), over the weekend.

Five seconds after stepping off the puddle jumper, it felt as though I’d never left, that the gap of five months could have been five days.  All in all it was a duration of five, one way or another, count it in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks or months.  I was back in London for a Expo at Earls Court.

I was walking down the underpass from Paddington Station and all the chilled, lassez faire approach to things went out the window and I wanted to scream at the person who was weaving from side to side with her kid, taking up all the space, “The sign says KEEP FUCKING LEFT” It took every ounce of lip biting to stop myself.  Why does London do this to me?

I don’t know what I was expecting when I got the station, but it wasn’t what appeared to be the Harry Potter film crew filming at the end of the platform I pulled into. 

Still I got lots of ideas for work, which I’ll probably forget no doubt.   It’s also nice to be home, even if it appears to have turned into the Lake District round here.