Posted: Tue 26 September, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related |
Following on from Saturday’s depressing piece of information I have also got a nice piece of post from the Inland Revenue themselves.
After more than two years of hassle, they’ve finally acknowledged – in writing – that they won’t be sending me a tax return for 2006/7 next year. Hallelujah and saints be praised, I think we’ve finally come to the end of that little farce.
Mind you, I’ll be keeping a) the letter, and b) the phone number of the only person in the tax office who I found to be at all useful or competent…
Posted: Tue 26 September, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Festering Season |
You know, it really is very easy to go off some people particularly when they decide to go all bloody festive and remind me (and, of course, the rest of the world – or at least the subsection of it that reads his blog) that there’s “only” three months ’til Christmas.
Personally, I prefer to go with the fact that three months from today, it’ll all be over with for another year. And bloody good riddance too.
Bah, humbug.
Posted: Mon 25 September, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Photography |
Hmm, now this might just constitute “overkill” when it comes to upgrading my camera(s).
A 160Mp digital camera? That produces images 6″ x 17″ ? Oh yeah, that’s something to aim for. Maybe one day…
Posted: Mon 25 September, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Travel, Weirdness |
Amazingly, the journey to Cambridge today went really smoothly. Although I have to say, I was right when my now-ex-employers moved to the London office, and I really truly couldn’t handle the commuter train to get in to London before 9am. OK, getting on where I do helps, as there’s normally still seating, but then halfway through the journey it’s still jam-packed like the Black Hole of Calcutta. Fuckin’ horrible.
All the same, though, it was OK. I got to Waterloo, onto Tubes that were busy but nowhere near full, in to Kings Cross, and then up to Cambridge. All on time, (in fact I even got an earlier train to Cambridge, and thus arrived at 9.30 instead of the planned 10.00am) and no problems at all.
No-one is more surprised than I.
Posted: Mon 25 September, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Travel, Work-related |
By the time this post goes live, I’ll be on a train to Cambridge, starting off my new job.
In lots of ways I’m really looking forward to it. Although the Monday morning start is going to be a bastard for a while. Ah well.
In others, it’s going to be weird. Being away from home for four nights a week, for instance, isn’t something I’m overly looking forward to. (And, in fairness, neither is Herself) But it’s a means to an end. It’s the start of getting us up to Norfolk and so on.
I suspect I’ll be doing this for at least the next month, possibly even two months. Once we’ve moved I’ll still be commuting to work, but it’ll be a daily thing, rather than up on Monday and back on Friday.
Of course, there will be benefits to being away too. It means that I’ve the time – and most likely the inclination too – to get a couple more websites written and sorted out, including the one for my own photography. Yeah, the ImageKind gallery is OK, but it’s only a stepping-stone towards where I want to be with it all. So that’s likely to be Site No 1 on the list, with a couple of others clinging on tightly behind. It also means I’m going to be doing a lot more writing work in general of an evening, which should also be good, and might even let my brain cool down a bit, if it doesn’t have to remember every bloody thing all the time.
But anyway, it’s the start of a new chapter, and I’m looking forward to it. Obviously there’ll be more posts as and when I get chance (and remember any necessary relevant passwords!)
Posted: Sun 24 September, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Own Business, Photography, Work-related |
While I’m more than pleased with the Canon DSLR I’ve got – and I’m still learning more about the damn thing every time I use it – it does have one fairly major downside. And that is that it’s bloody heavy, and bulky. It’s not something for an instant photo – of course, it’s all OK once it’s been put together, and I can carry it about with me easily at that point, but all the same, that instant photo thing just isn’t there.
And also it’s a pain in the arse when it comes to concerts and the like – it definitely qualifies as a “professional” camera, and pretty much every venue I use calls it a no-no.
So I’m looking around at what’s available. Something fairly compact, with a decent amunt of pixels, and a good zoom level. I was considering the FujiFilm F30, which does look like an excellent bit of kit, but only has a 3x optical zoom, which is a bit lower than I was hoping for. Obviously I realise that for the things I want there may be some compromises, but still a 3x zoom is on the low end. But then I saw the Ricoh Caplio R5 which is very tempting. 7.1x optical zoom, and 7Mp resolution. Sounds pretty good so far…
Posted: Sun 24 September, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised |
Not a lot happening here today – just having a quiet day, before disappearing off to Cambridge tomorrow.
The bag’s packed, most of gubbins I’ll be needing is ready (I just need to sort out the laptop and the power packs for laptop and mobile phone) but I’m pretty much ready for tomorrow.
For today though, well, it’s going to be quiet.