Good morning...

...and welcome to another Monday. So what did I get up to at the weekend? Took Jake to the driving range Saturday morning which is always good, then on Saturday afternoon played a round and three quarters of online golf with a friend in the U.S! Very cool. We used Tiger Woods '07 on the Xbox360 and played 18 holes of stroke play on the St. Andrews course. We played about 15 holes to start with, I was leading and Scotts Xbox apparantly 'developed a drive fault' which meant the game crashed! (I still want a stewards enquiry on that one!) Anyway, we re-started and he kicked my ass, I played like a fool and he played well to win. The result didnt really matter (*cough*) but it was such a good laugh. Hopefully we'll be arranging to play again soon.
Saturday night I was round my parents for a ruby. Sunday I had a golf lesson at health club that the wife is a member of. It went ok, but he changed my grip(!) which is always a nightmare because it takes a while to get used to it. Not to get too technical, but if you think about it your grip is your only interface between you and the club, so if you change what you have been used to for ages, its gonna feel completely weird. Im off up the driving range tonight to keep practicing it. Sunday afternoon was spent sat around doin naff all.
Anyway, not too sure of plans this week apart from driving range tonight, golf on Wednesday, football Thursday. Have a good Monday all.

Really loving The Enemy's album

Im listening to it constantly, which is a bit of a worry as I dont really wanna do the 'overkill' thing.
Playing football tonight, golf tomorrow then its the weekend. Cool.
Busy-ish day today, working on quite an interesting little Domino project. I should have enough changes to it tomorrow to make the day go quick which will be nice. I was up at 4.25 this morning.. just clicked awake and didn't really get back to sleep properly, but I've been on a couple of cans of red bull today so Im sort of tired but buzzin...

Anyway, have a nice evening all, more postage tomorrow.

Good day

Its a good day today. Not a fantastic one, but a good one. The reasons being:
a) Its payday
2) I have work to do, and its quite an interesting piece of code
c) Im playing golf this afternoon
IV) Ive got a new album that I bought on the spur of the moment, and I like it.

So thats all there is to report today really!

Soundtrack of the day: "We'll Live And Die In These Towns" by The Enemy.

Where are all the comments I used to get, by the way? Come on people, communicate with me. It gives you the chance to send anonymous comments, about anything, and I will always publish them! Peace all.

Update: Someone sent me this link today http://www.geocities.com/fang_club/lego_grail.html

Update: Mentalist alert!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6915262.stm

I heard the news today, oh boy...

On the way to work this morning I heard a report about a man who had attempted a solo flight across the atlantic, but it "ended in disaster".
Now at first glance, although that sounds bad, it doesn't sound too out of this world...but when you hear the details it makes you think "what the f*ck!?"
First of all he crashed 5 minutes into his flight, into a block of flats. So a journey that was going to take him around 30 hours ended in just 5 minutes. Secondly, the journey was going to be done in a light aircraft..."OK" you think "Its been done before" but the aircraft was home made! I mean come on! The poor man (he unfortunately perished, rest in peace etc.) must have been some kind of mental patient. (The article on the bbc web site here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6912431.stm
doesn't say that the plane was home made, but according to the news on the radio this morning it was). Anyway, it tickled me (not the death bit, but the idea of it...)
I also had one of those out-of-the-blue emails this morning from a friend I haven't heard from in ages. A good friend of mine called Rodney Miller, who lives out in Australia. It was totally unexpected but a really good start to the moring, rather than the usual toss I get in my inbox. If you're reading this Rod, G'day bloke!
Right, I have some work to do today, which is a nice change, so the day should go quite quickly. Oh, and I finished the new Harry Potter book yesterday. The people who die are &l0en3BH8 n88N3-WS02 and wmbfU83-'£% 2UIswyn$&( (bloody keyboard... sorry about that). Peace.

Im back

I was not well all the back end of last week, or the weekend really. I was coughing up stuff that could have run away and started its own business. It was not very pleasant. I managed to feel fit enough to go out for our planned beer 'n' curry night on Friday and I really enjoyed that. Apart from that, not much went on. I managed to watch quite a lot of the golf, (disappointed that Garcia lost out in a playoff, he's one of my favourite players), built a new desk for Jake, got down the driving range on Sunday morning (again with Jake). Its Jake's last Watford training session tonight, (Emma's taking him) and Im playing golf on Wednesday. Work wise, as I've been off for a few days, I need to do some catch up which at least means I shouldn't be sitting here bored today.
Anyway, I'll hopefully be back to regular updates this week so stay tuned listeners.

Update: Soundtrack of the day: "The Police" by The Police (Greatest Hits album...) ROOOOXanne...!

Apologies...

... for no post for a couple of days. Im on a sickie today, I feel like total 'merde'. Headache, sore throat, voice like Barry White and a messed up nose.
No much going on really, apart from a boys night this Friday night Im really looking forward to - a couple of pints, then a curry, just the lads. Can't wait.
Feeling like this, you just dont wanna do anything, so sorry about the short post, but Im going back to bed. Have a good Wednesday listeners.

Back to the slog

So its back to the daily grind today. C# Day 5 was a bust. We finished the course on day 4, so we could spend day 5 going over things that weren't on the official course, and seeing as the only thing I will be using was covered first, I left the course at 11.00! I then went and spent over £100 in Nevada Bob's golf store in Broadgate Circle... the guy I've been playing golf with said I should go check the shop out as it was so close to the course, so I did, and thats how I accidently spent the money. I bought some new golf balls that were on sale, and a new putter. Mind you the putter is VERY nice.
Not much happened at the weekend. A pretty quiet one. This week, its my turn to take Jake to Watford on Monday, playing badminton Tuesday, golf Wednesday, football Thursday and probably golf Friday again.
Finally, I was actually pleasantly surprised this morning, as I have been out of the office for a whole week I expected my desk to be covered in crap and all my stuff to be moved. But I came back in and everything is how it was when I left. So I guess people DO learn. Have a good Monday all.

C# Day 4

An early post today as I was in the office early. I saw this story on BBC's website, and it really made me feel good.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/6292354.stm
Its one of those stories that made me smile, but also choked me up a bit. I mean how nice was that?
Also, on the way into the training office I walk past Bishopsgate Police station. This morning I saw a policeman with a turban on, and a badge on his turban. Now I am not racist in the slightest, thats not the reason for my comment, I just thought that if a policeman's 'tit' helmet is supposed to offer some sort of protection, what sort of protection would the man with a turban on get? Just thought I'd raise that as a small talking point.
Anyway, I we'll see what sort of a day I have on the course today and how early I leave(!). Maybe more comments tonight. Oh, and comiserations to my friend Colin, he dislocated his shoulder whilst on holiday in Cornwall at the weekend... in the words of Nelson from The Simpsons "Har Har"! (Get better soon dear...).

C# Day 3

Another day we flew through. We now have three chapters left to do! We were able to leave at 15.00 we are working so quickly. The thing is, Im not worried because its all being picked up by my brain fairly easily. As I posted yesterday the trick is to make sure I start coding some of the stuff back at the office so I dont forget it.
I have heard a rumour that I may have a trip out to the U.S office w/c 27th August... yet to be confirmed.
No plans for tonight... a bath and a glass of red I think. There's nowt on the box, so maybe it's a book night. Or a DVD night if Im feeling lazy.
No plans for the weekend either at the moment.
Anyway, two more days of the course to go. Peace.

C# Day 2

So the geezer next to me was noddin off again. Didnt bother coughing loud enough to keep him awake today, I thought it would be more amusing for him to get caught - unfortunately not.
The course is going really fast - I spoke to the lecturer today and he said he thinks we'll be finished by Thursday. That means Friday we can look at some 'non-curriculm' stuff. But more importantly, I can get to leave at lunchtime and play golf! Yay!
The language / syntax of C# is very similar to Java, so thats why Im finding it so easy. I just hope I get the chance to use it back at the office...
Im coming down with a cold I think - the first signs for me are normally a sore throat and I have one bitch of one. Git.
Oh, and the package I sent to the U.S for a friend of mine finally turned up... but brilliantly it turned up today, on his birthday! So, happy birthday Scott.
Anyway, not much else to report listeners. More drivel tomorrow.

C# Day 1

DULL. The first day of a course normally is. Its filled with nervous people in the morning all gathering in the coffee room waiting to be called to class. I actually got someone sending me a bluetooth text while I was sitting there in the morning. I dont know who it was from, but someone in the coffee room sent me something saying "Hi how are you". I thought - OK... but ignored it. They then sent a joke about my Bluetooth name, and again I thought "right, someone is a bit weird" but when I ignored that one they sort of got the hint.
Anyway, after the initial morning of sitting around avoiding everyones eyes we go up to class, and then have to do the "Hi, my name is Simon, I work for blah blah blah" to everyone. So we finally get to actual course work by about 10.30. And as its all the intro stuff its very boring. I actually have a guy sat next to me from Ediburgh who came down this morning. He was falling asleep at his desk! I kept on having to cough really loudly to snap him out of it. I spoke to him during a break and he said its no surprise Im knackered I started at 04.00 this morning. Poor bloke.
Anyway, we'll see what happens tomorrow. Have a nice evening all...

My Friday

Working from home tomorrow, so today is like my Friday.
Didn't play too well yesterday - didnt count up my score, but I think it was low 90's.. not good.
Still, we didn't get pi$ed on with the rain, so can't complain. Will try again on Friday afternoon (4.26 tee time).
Pidgeon count - two shots two clean kills. Nice.
Playing football later than normal tonight - 8.30. I don't like playing that late really, coz by that time this aching body of mine has started its shut down procedure for the night, but I do enjoy playing so won't bitch too much!
No plans for the weekend really... I do have one job to do, and thats clear out my garage coz there's a lot of crap in there I need to shift to be able to park my car in there again. But there is a problem. There are no doubt HUGE spiders in that garage, and I am not the best person around spiders. I know that when I start shifting gear, I will see gigantic black hairy eight-legged bastards running about the place and I will be a nervous wreck. I know its girlie to admit to that, but it really is a phobia I have, not just a little fear. I want to find some sort of gas I can spray in there to kill 'em all, and maybe even destroy their bodies so I dont have to look at their enormous corpses. The only good spider is a dead spider in my book. Bastards.
Anyway, IF I do the garage, and IF I survive, I will update here next week. On a course all week (C#) next week, so if its boring I might be updating this more than normal! Have a nice weekend all.
Update: Just sent an email to Barclays asking to settle my claim(!) I have sent it to about 6 different people, so hopefully ONE of them will respond. Updates as they occur...

At last...

... I have some work to do. Its only getting some information out of some SQL tables, but its something. Badminton was good. Jake is really coming along, it wont be long before he'll be giving me a proper game. I'm supposed to be playing golf tonight (tee time 4.34) but if the weather is anything like it was yesterday, then no chance.

Soundtrack of the day: "Uncle Dysfunktional" by Happy Mondays. it REALLY rocks, really likeing it.

Not much going on today apart from that. American Independence day, so happy July 4.

Extravagant

I've bought FOUR new CDs today... naughty boy.
"Libertad" by Velvet Revolver (hard rock)
"The Colour And The Shape" by Foo Fighters (old album)
"Unkle Dysfunktional" by Happy Mondays (NEW material!)
"The Bends" by Radiohead (didn't actually have it no CD - I do now)

I have also copied across all my content from my old MP3 player to my new one - its quite amazing, seeing as I have HALF my capacity left on my new one... brilliant! The new MP3 player is v.nice, good interface, good sound, and looks very nice.

I read a book in a DAY yesterday. I am THAT quiet at work, (and home, actually) that I read the whole thing. Its called "The Timewaster Diaries" by Robin Cooper. I now am about to start a John Grisham novel (I know, very mainstream, but I like his work).

Thats about it on planet Molloy really... playing Badminton tonight with Jake, so looking forward to that. Then I think I might treat us all to fish and chips from the chippy. Nice...
Have a good Tuesday people.
American Day Of Independence tomorrow - so happy July 4 to all my Stateside listeners.. (I think there's only 1!)

Well one arrived...

oooohh...


aaahhh......

Update: The Vans were at home when I got here! I didnt realise I had asked them to be delivered here and not at work... so that was a nice surprise for me - and they're tres cool. (Well, I like them!)

Getting very frustrated now

Its not right, is it, when the only reason I've come into the office today is because Im hoping to take delivery either of my MP3 player, or my new Vans - not to do some work. I have two things on the go, one I can't do anything about until I have spoken to the right guy in the U.S (and with the time difference between here and there, that can be awkward) and the other is just so mind numbingly dull I can't even begin to start thinking about making a start on it. Its basically an admin job, and when you're a talented developer (yeah, I know, sounds big headed, but I am, so bite me) you dont wanna be wasting your time on jobs that should be given to the office junior. Im gonna just try and battle through this week, and then Im on a training course all next week in London so at least that should stimulate me a bit more. (I started this blog on the last training course I was on... ah memories).
I think I have something lined up for every evening this week which is rare.
Tonight - Watford training with Jake (its my turn)
Tuesday - Badminton with Jake
Wednesday - Golf
Thursday - Football
Friday - (possibly) Golf again (Im not gonna be able to play next week coz of the training course so need to get some games in this week).
Well, I'll update later with what (if anything) turns up... merry Monday all.

Cr@ppy weekend

Yes it was. Got rained on at Jake's (last) football training session on Saturday morning, and the rest of the weekend went down hill from there. God Im cheesed off at the moment. I need something good to happen soon - some sort of good news or something.
I have two things that could (potentially) put a smile on my face at the moment - my new MP3 player should be arriving this week, and also a new pair of Vans (old skool).
Oh, I also sent a little gift to a work collegue in the U.S. I dont want to say on here what it is, because he reads this blog, but I hope he likes it. Oh, another thing that could put a smile on my face - hearing his reaction to his little gift. That would make me feel better... but then unselfishly giving normally does. The past couple of posts have been low, I know, but its how I feel at the moment. Sorry.