Birthday!

I have missed a few recently, for which I apologise, but I see that today is evil_chalkie's birthday.

Have a splendid one, Squire. Don't get too drunk, or if you do, don't get too hungover!

Birthday!

I have missed a few recently, for which I apologise, but I see that today is evil_chalkie's birthday.

Have a splendid one, Squire. Don't get too drunk, or if you do, don't get too hungover!

Because I can't let a day go without writing something...

This afternoon I have mainly been in a meeting.

It was one of those meetings that is a little bit like, listening to a conversation in Dutch; if you listen just a little harder, you feel as though you could understand what’s going on. It’s all close enough to English to sound familiar and friendly, but just far enough away to be incomprehensible. These are the most tiring meetings, because not only do you concentrate in a futile effort to work out what they are all talking about, but you feel like a complete spoon afterwards.

Still, that’s all over now. Tomorrow there will be some other nonsense to hold my attention (or not) and drive me to distraction (or not).

I have made the rookie mistake of making myself a large cup of coffee before I leave for the day. I had more than half a pint of milk left, so I have made the coffee 50-50 milk and water and blasted it in the microwave. The result is that it is a) very tasty and b) only marginally cooler than a McDonald’s apple pie, thus making my cup of coffee the second hottest thing known to humanity.

And because it has a half pint or so of milk in it, I do not feel inclined to just say ‘sod it’ and go home anyway. I should have thought it through before I took the lid off the jar and started ladling in the granules (can you even get instant coffee powder any more – the old Maxwell House stuff that tasted like dust?).

I note that today is the 204th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and that to commemorate that fact, the last surviving Union Jack from the battle – one that flew from the HMS Spartiate – has been sold at auction for a princely £384,000, rather more than the estimated £15,000.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8318951.stm

Because I can't let a day go without writing something...

This afternoon I have mainly been in a meeting.

It was one of those meetings that is a little bit like, listening to a conversation in Dutch; if you listen just a little harder, you feel as though you could understand what’s going on. It’s all close enough to English to sound familiar and friendly, but just far enough away to be incomprehensible. These are the most tiring meetings, because not only do you concentrate in a futile effort to work out what they are all talking about, but you feel like a complete spoon afterwards.

Still, that’s all over now. Tomorrow there will be some other nonsense to hold my attention (or not) and drive me to distraction (or not).

I have made the rookie mistake of making myself a large cup of coffee before I leave for the day. I had more than half a pint of milk left, so I have made the coffee 50-50 milk and water and blasted it in the microwave. The result is that it is a) very tasty and b) only marginally cooler than a McDonald’s apple pie, thus making my cup of coffee the second hottest thing known to humanity.

And because it has a half pint or so of milk in it, I do not feel inclined to just say ‘sod it’ and go home anyway. I should have thought it through before I took the lid off the jar and started ladling in the granules (can you even get instant coffee powder any more – the old Maxwell House stuff that tasted like dust?).

I note that today is the 204th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and that to commemorate that fact, the last surviving Union Jack from the battle – one that flew from the HMS Spartiate – has been sold at auction for a princely £384,000, rather more than the estimated £15,000.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8318951.stm