Guests

As I said yesterday, I had three friends staying here last night. We’d decided to go out for a meal (yes, Beluga again – no-one can say I’m not supporting them! *Grin*) Again, the meal was bloody good – I really do enjoy going there.

The evening was really pleasant all round – it’s been a good weekend. Out of the friends who stayed, only one had been here before – so the 24 hours before had been a little bit hypersonic, I still worry a bit about first impressions and so on, and no matter how many times I go through this and it all works out fine, yes, I still worry. Pathetic, isn’t it?

Anyway, all went well, and it’ll be happening more regularly.

TV – Boss Swap

For the last two weeks, Channel 4 has been showing a new variant on the Wife Swap genre, Boss Swap. I’m a sad geek – I find documentary-type programmes about business fascinating, particularly the type where the owners or bosses are uprooted into a new environment, or where troubled businesses are looked at.

With Boss Swap, obviously they’ve been made to make for good TV, but the bosses so far (and bear in mind I’m working from a sample of two here) have all been complete cockheads. It’s infuriating – I know that some of the personality flaws displayed are the ones that have driven them to become self-employed and drive towards their own businesses and empires, but so far they’ve all got a vile personality, completely abrasive, blinkered, and apparently incapable of receiving criticism. Deeply annoying TV.

Grrr

I finally got round to ordering the mounting cards for the two prints I got done last week. “They won’t be ready ’til about 3pm, dear” – no worries, I’ll just head home, tidy up, then run round like a bollockwit at about 2.30 in order to get back into town, pick up the mounts, get home, get sorted for guests later. (of which more in a bit) I’ve just got home, the phone rings “The mounts are ready for you, dear”. It’s 12.30. Aargh.

Words Fail Me

There’s only so much I can say about “I’m a nonentity – get me a publicist” without spitting, but the story from Ananova that Jordan wanted to take a vibrator into the ‘jungle’. Although, as we discussed in Fab cafe yesterday, I do wonder just how badly Jordan (wrong link – this one, if you must), John Lydon (Johhny Rotten) and Peter Andre are going to get on together…

Regional Insanity

For some reason, Nottingham seems to be getting right into it on the tourism/branding front at the moment. Not only have they finally got their tram system working, they’ve also managed to get East Midlands Airport renamed to Nottingham East Midlands Airport. An impressive achievement in its own way, particularly as Nottingham is further from the airport than either Leicester or Derby. Obviously, the councils for both cities are up in arms, and generally protesting away – far, far too late.

And now, Yorkshire is trying to claim ownership of Robin Hood, and get tourism signs saying “home of Robin Hood” moved 60 miles up the road. If it weren’t all so pathetic, it’d be quite funny.

Blogmeet – the summing-up

Yes, it was fun – Meg turned up, and that dirty little stop-away Stuart didn’t. We’ll get him one day, I’m sure…

Photos will be up later – some were _very_ shonky, so may not see the light of day. Fab cafe ran out of Budvar – focking disgraceful. *Grin* Le knacker du Chris was an early theme for conversation, followed by (in no certain order) films with too many endings (mentioning no names); whether Princess Bride is a good film, or “just shit”(©Topper); hobbit porn; tattoos; body mods in general; whether some people should even be allowed out of the house; whether the same people look in the mirror before going out, and think “Fuck, yeah, I look hot tonight!“; whether striped tops are a priviledge or a right , and a whole range of other disparaging comments and subjects. It was fun.

When’s the next one?

Quiet

There’s not much been happening today. The entire working day has been filled with skirmishes and running battles between PHP, CSS, and SQL. Overall, a lot of progress has been made, but each section has been a struggle with something new, or not working, or not doing the job properly, or some combination of those.

Luckily the evening is looking like it should be good – the first Manchester Blogmeet of ’04 is happening tonight, and I’ll be there. So will (in no particular order) Lori, Jane and Adrian. Unfortunately, Chris is (ahem) out of action, and Sarah’s broke, so neither of them are likely to be arriving. New guests are welcome – and Meg Intergalactic is looking to be one of them. Possibly Stuart too – he’s been invited, but remains quiet so far. It should be a good night…