Monday ramble

Looking up out of the window I notice that the rain is coming down again. Not just falling, but hurling itself down. This is no gentle English rain, it is a full blooded pelt.

And now it has stopped.

The weather around here seems to have forgotten how to behave; we have hot, humid and cloudy. We have sun, blue skies and high winds. We have rain that hits the ground hard enough to dent concrete, but which lasts for about five minutes before segueing into one of the other bizarre weather types. It is April on steroids, every day.

Despite the weather forecast, much of the weekend was splendidly rain-free, not that I spent a great deal of time outside; the remains of the lurgy ensured that, even though it got better as the weekend moved on.

England won the final test match against the West Indies by eleven wickets (we were one run short of an innings' victory) to equal an English record of seven consecutive test victories. The Aussie record is, of course something like sixteen, but that is probably a freak, since as good as their current team is, it doesn't match their test side of the late 80's and mid 90's. The West Indies' record is, I believe, eleven consecutive wins and these two put England's achievement in its proper perspective. Having said that, England, despite the horrors that were the performances of much of the 1990s appear on the record list with three seven win streaks which is still quite remarkable. It will be interesting to see how things go on the South Africa tour over the winter, before we pull up sharply against the Aussies next summer.

In the meantime, instead of working, I am pondering the fate of a colleague was here this morning, but mysteriously absent this afternoon. I may be doing him a great disservice, but I would not be surprised to see him barrelling in over the next half hour as refreshed as a newt…

Monday ramble

Looking up out of the window I notice that the rain is coming down again. Not just falling, but hurling itself down. This is no gentle English rain, it is a full blooded pelt.

And now it has stopped.

The weather around here seems to have forgotten how to behave; we have hot, humid and cloudy. We have sun, blue skies and high winds. We have rain that hits the ground hard enough to dent concrete, but which lasts for about five minutes before segueing into one of the other bizarre weather types. It is April on steroids, every day.

Despite the weather forecast, much of the weekend was splendidly rain-free, not that I spent a great deal of time outside; the remains of the lurgy ensured that, even though it got better as the weekend moved on.

England won the final test match against the West Indies by eleven wickets (we were one run short of an innings' victory) to equal an English record of seven consecutive test victories. The Aussie record is, of course something like sixteen, but that is probably a freak, since as good as their current team is, it doesn't match their test side of the late 80's and mid 90's. The West Indies' record is, I believe, eleven consecutive wins and these two put England's achievement in its proper perspective. Having said that, England, despite the horrors that were the performances of much of the 1990s appear on the record list with three seven win streaks which is still quite remarkable. It will be interesting to see how things go on the South Africa tour over the winter, before we pull up sharply against the Aussies next summer.

In the meantime, instead of working, I am pondering the fate of a colleague was here this morning, but mysteriously absent this afternoon. I may be doing him a great disservice, but I would not be surprised to see him barrelling in over the next half hour as refreshed as a newt…

Resurrection

Back online with a proper PC - as suspected it was the power unit which had died on me.

My plea for help to romney has borne fruit and I now have a new power unit and a working DVD-ROM. The sound is back and running too. I don't know what was wrong I'd plugged the speakers in the wrong points, duh. with them but there they are, all working again.

I am formally reinstating romney's sarcasm licence for another year, which will allow him unhindered ability to leave bizarre, irelevant and worryingly insane comments to my posts. It keeps him off the streets.

It took me but a single evening of typing on the dwarf keyboard that comes with a lap top to remind me why I needed this one fixed; oh the joys of a full-sized keyboard. I'd French it if I wasn't worried about the age and condition of some of the crumbs trapped between the keys, and the possibilty therefore of poisoning followed by 240 volts across the tonsils. The loving caress of my two fingered typing will have to suffice.

I have a very itchy wasp sting on my forearm. This is unrelated to the state of the computer, you may have guessed, but I thought I'd make that plain for the slower of you. Yes, folks, I got stung. And after the transient squeakdom of the sting itself, it is the itchy aftermath which annoys most. After my shower there will be a further and more liberal application of Anthisan. If it doesn't stop itching soon, I shall be forced to go on a murderous rampage. Or be rude in writing on some newsgroup.

Either is good.

Resurrection

Back online with a proper PC - as suspected it was the power unit which had died on me.

My plea for help to romney has borne fruit and I now have a new power unit and a working DVD-ROM. The sound is back and running too. I don't know what was wrong I'd plugged the speakers in the wrong points, duh. with them but there they are, all working again.

I am formally reinstating romney's sarcasm licence for another year, which will allow him unhindered ability to leave bizarre, irelevant and worryingly insane comments to my posts. It keeps him off the streets.

It took me but a single evening of typing on the dwarf keyboard that comes with a lap top to remind me why I needed this one fixed; oh the joys of a full-sized keyboard. I'd French it if I wasn't worried about the age and condition of some of the crumbs trapped between the keys, and the possibilty therefore of poisoning followed by 240 volts across the tonsils. The loving caress of my two fingered typing will have to suffice.

I have a very itchy wasp sting on my forearm. This is unrelated to the state of the computer, you may have guessed, but I thought I'd make that plain for the slower of you. Yes, folks, I got stung. And after the transient squeakdom of the sting itself, it is the itchy aftermath which annoys most. After my shower there will be a further and more liberal application of Anthisan. If it doesn't stop itching soon, I shall be forced to go on a murderous rampage. Or be rude in writing on some newsgroup.

Either is good.