Not sure which is most weird, taking your sandals off and pouring a drink out of them or simply wearing these things on your feet.

Labels: Weird

Sorry for being a bit quiet the last couple of days. I've been busy actually taking my job as environmental cordinator at work seriously (going round with a notebook making notes and everything). Yup, they actually trusted me with more power. Fools - let my reign of environmental terror begin!!!

Anyway, I didn't come on to post about my new responsibilites but about someone elses. Bonus - ex workmate and he who you may have seen leaving comments (usually to moan at my spelling) - became a father in the early hours of this morning. Congratulations mate.

Want photos now!

Labels: Personal

Looking for somewhere slightly different to stay on your travels? Well, this place is pure gold...

Labels: Interesting

Heh, I can just imagine the police interview after this incident.

"It was disgusting! We had to watch for a full 20 minutes before we could believe it was happening and call the police!"

Labels: News, Weird

I've been meaning to go through all the accounts and stuff I have spread over the place and change to several more secure passwords but haven't gotten around to it yet. I probably should. Not that mine are really bad, just not really great either. And sooooo many to remember....

Labels: Computers, Interesting

10 Quick Tips for an Easier CSS Life. I should try and remember these when I get round to redoing this place. It's still on my to do list - honest.

Labels: Internet

Why would you not want to buy something from the The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company?

Labels: Environmental, Weird

Well, my internet at home is back up and running. And I only had to talk to one technician who had absolutely no clue what he was doing (if he starts with the "have you tried turning it off and on?" line you're onto a loser).

I would also like it mentioned that crawling around on the floor for two hours on a Monday morning setting computers up is not my idea of fun. Plus I think I pulled something...

Labels: Personal

Now I'm staying out of the whole debate about sex education in schools but I did find this campaign video particularly disgusting when I watched it a few days back. The depths some people will stoop too. Still, there is no hiding from manic.

Labels: Internet, Politics

Seems that France has published details of all the country's UFO sightings. Unfortunately they seem to have underestimated how interested the online world would be in this as their website is currently pretty much dead. Either that or aliens got there first....

Labels: Interesting

Dinner in the sky. Just try not to kill anyone if you drop your fork....

Also hope they don't server this (unless you like that sort of thing).

Labels: Interesting, Weird

Ah, the good old UK - most surveilled country in the West.

Labels: Politics, Technology

My internet at home is broke, again! Dammit! A couple of days I can cope with but if this turns into another 2 month episode I'll be well cheesed off...

Labels: Personal

A surprising (at least to me) consequence of 'Teh Vision' here at my place of work appears to be that my own postition is rapidly rising. I'm sure there must be a few people in the department that see the dawn of a new age of IT here at the university as an opportunity to build or expand their empire. I on the other hand have no such interest. In fact, I shy away from the whole responsibility and power thing. And yet everytime I turn around, damned if I've not been given more of it!

I find out today about another new position being created and it seems this one will be working under me as well. At the current count that means in the next few months I'll soon be master of no less than seven minions. Seven! How the hell did that happen? One minute I'm happily hiding away in the back room with a couple of staff that don't really listen to me and next I have an enormous section under me!

For the first time in almost ten years I'm also being sent on a training course for three days (2nd to the 4th April). I don't count the last course I went on as it had nothing to do with my job and they only sent me because the person that was supposed to be going was ill. Guess it could be seen as a bit cheeky that I'm letting them pay for me to be trained considering I could well be interviewing for a new job a couple of days beforehand (fingers crossed) but what the hell.

Lastly - and this one is more my fault - I volunteered to be the buildings 'Environmenatal Co-ordinator'. I have no idea what it entails (or if they'll give it to me) but it could be a larf. I know I said I don't like responsibility and the like, and I very nearly dismissed the idea without a second thought but this could be a good chance to make a bit of a difference. May as well try and do something worthwhile once in a while. Plus maybe I'll get to wear my Captain Planet costume...

Labels: Personal

Simple but fairly addictive - Boomshine. I got stuck at getting 55...

Labels: Games, Timewaste

Seems the FBI are abusing their powers slightly. Slightly being about 120,000 times....

Labels: News, War on Terror

Want a laptop without Windows on it - it'll cost ya. How daft is that.

Labels: Computers, Technology

Labels: Interesting

Probably more interesting if you like material physics but you can still impress your mates down the pub by telling them that the universe is a string-net liquid. As long as they don't want you to explain it....

Labels: Interesting, Science

There is an episode of Father Ted where Ted and Dougal enter a song for eurovision. They end up being chosen because Ireland can't afford to host the competition again and so pick the worst entry to make sure they lose. Sounds strangely familiar for some reason. I can't see any other reason why such a selection of rubbish is picked by the judges and the worst of the selection is then chosen by the British public.

Not heard the song? Try here. And what's with all the gay innuendo from the camp guy?

"Salted nuts sir?"
"Something to suck on for the landing sir?"

Gimme a break. Onward to another spectacular loss at Eurovision I say!

Update: Actually, if they are going to go for cheesy, childish pop I vote we choose this song next year.

Labels: Music

After getting back from Malta and all the nice food recently, I thought it would be good if I made the effort to cooking something new every couple of weeks. So, on tonights menu we have Egyptian Stuffed Pigeon followed by ovos-moles for dessert. And then strawberry jelly.

What? I like jelly....

Labels: Food, Personal

Beware our new robot overlords, they come bearing tissues....

Labels: Gadgets, Technology

Not sure what I find more weird, that a drunk bloke decides to post himself into an abandoned baby box, or that such boxes exist at all....

Labels: Weird

Have you ever found yourself laying in bed half asleep when suddenly - with no prompting at all - a thought enters your mind from nowhere and you think to yourself "SH*T! I forgot to do xyz!". That's what happened to me last night at 2am when I realized that I'd forgotten to do something important at work yesterday. Then of course I couldn't get back to sleep because I kept running over how I was going to have to confess to it the next day...

Luckily it appears that someone spotted my mistake and did the job for me, so at least no harm done. Well, except me looking like an incompetent idiot.

Crap start to my day and I fear it's just going to get worse. Thank god it's Friday.

Labels: Personal

Keep you busy for 10 mins - Flash Circle Tower Defender.

Labels: Games, Timewaste

As ways to try and kill yourself to go, this one is different.....

Oh, and if you are going to murder somone, don't Google how to do it just beforehand.

Labels: News, Weird

So yesterday I did something I've not done for three years - I applied for a new job. It involves pretty much all the stuff I currently do plus a couple of other bits that I'm perfectly capable of. On paper it looks a worse job as there is no supervisory role - I'd go back to just being in charge of me. I'd like that. The pay - six grand more. Makes my wage here look a bit of a joke really.

Do I stand a chance of getting it? Who knows. I should as it really is a perfect match for my skills but it's been such a long time since I had to fill in an application and although I thought it looked ok, I could end up in the discarded pile without a second thought. It's scary trying to get back into the job market after ten years, of not knowing how you compare to other people out there.

Guess I'll find out in a week or so.

Labels: Personal

Didn't see this coming at all - Google sued by Viacom for $1 billion. The end of YouTube maybe? Not that it will matter, people will just upload the clips they have straight to another hosting site and that will become flavour of the month.

Labels: Internet

As you may have noticed I have been posting slightly less this last week and there are a couple of reasons for this. First, I'm not supposed to be posting at work anymore. I still find the time to knock out the odd post but I can't really sit around surfing all manner of pages trying to find interesting links at the moment. Plus I'm one workmate down so I am acually reasonably busy, hard as that may be to believe for me. My blogging habbits are going to have to change slightly and be concentrated more on when I'm at home. Which leads me onto reason two....

I found a website over the weekend that links to err, slightly less than legitimate copies of movies and TV shows. Ever since, I've been downloading (much to the annoyance of my ISP I suspect who will have seen a huge spike in my bandwidth usage) various bit and peices for my viewing pleasure.

Sunday for example saw the head to head clash of Ghost Rider and Batman Begins and you'd have to say Marvel 0 : DC 1 is the score there! Never pay to see Ghost Rider. Nice special effects yes but predictable plot, evil badguys that get beaten up within 20 seconds and as for Nicholas Cage's acting (if you can call it that) - eurghhh! Batman is so much the better film and an enjoyable watch.

However the main reason I don't have time to post when at home is I watched the first episode of Heroes and I'm now officially hooked! For all the talk companies do about piracy killing their profits, this is a perfect example of the opposite being true. With no TV I likely would never have seen this show but now I'm already planning on getting the boxed set! Just a shame I can't watch it at work....

Labels: Film, Personal, TV

Ever have one of those nights where it seems the universe is intent on not letting you sleep. Where one thing after another happens to prevent you from entering blissfull slumber? That was me last night.

I was being good - in bed by 9:30pm ready for my early start today. There were people in the street outside my window however, talking just loudly and annoyingly enough to distract me from drifting off. I tossed and turned for a bit and they finally left. I slept.

I next woke to hear my new next door neighbours coming in. I have no idea what time it was but the talking and opening of doors right outside my flat was quite noisy. They's obviously bought people back with them and one by one, they left, waking me each time. The last was around 2:30am I believe.

Next it was a lorry or street cleaner passing by my windows. I buried my head and drifted back asleep.

It sounded like something very heavy being dropped on the floor of a flat somewhere above me, or at least that was the first thought that entered my head when the loud crash woke me. It was quickly followed by a second - heavy enough that I could feel the vibrations through my bed - and then a third accompanied by the sound of falling masonary.

Earthquake? Explosion? Both seemed possible explanations as I came fully awake but looking outside my window I could see someone in the street directly below. It was 4am. Then voices downstairs. A man leaves next door and I hear the girl sliding the security chain into place after him. A man screams in rage one or two streets away.

I tried for another hour to go back to bed but it wasn't happening oddly enough. At 5am I finally gave in and went to watch an episode of Heroes online. When I left for work I found one of the double glazed panes of glass in the building front door smashed in, a brick laying in the road outside.

Fun night huh!?

Labels: Personal

I must say I'd never thought about this before - and I do have to wonder why it's taken so long for anyone to do anything - but the government is promoting greener motoring habits. Just don't become a hypermiler....

Labels: Environmental

So 'The Vision' forges ahead at work with the release yesterday of 'Teh Rulez!'. Now we had rules here before - in fact a lot of those listed in the offical 'Teh Rulez!' document sound eerily familiar - but no one ever actually followed them. That would be silly. We saw them as more of guidelines to be ignored. I somehow feel they might actually enforce them now however.

I'm ok with the dress code (smart casual) but my ex workmate Bonus who left not two weeks ago and had a penchant for wearing shorts all year round seems to have had a lucky escape. No eating at my desk?! What am I supposed to do when I need that mid-morning chocolate fix! No drinking at my desk. I live in a large windowless, airless (well not actually airless or I'd die) room with 100 servers and numerous bits of networking kit that is about as humid the moon and I'm not allowed a glass of water at my desk. I feel a fainting fit coming on....

There are others but I can't tell you what they are (it's in 'Teh Rulez!'). Of course I'm also no longer allowed to blog (or do any such recreational thing) during work hours. Good job I'm doing this outside of those hours - as my timestamp shows...

Labels: Personal

Is it wrong of me to really quite like the new Justin Timberlake song? I feel so unclean.......

Labels: Music

R.I.P John Inman.

And just a few days after the death of Captain America too.....

Labels: News

I'm really not sure where I stand on this incest story (oooh, I'm going to regret posting that word). I'm open minded and if they are not hurting anyone else then I can see how the law is unfair to them. At the same time I can see the medical reasons for discouraging it, something seemingly proved true with their own children.

"Eric, our eldest child, has epilepsy, but he was born two months premature, he also has learning difficulties. Our other daughter, Sarah, has special needs."

But at what stage do you decide it is wrong for a couple to have children? Apparently a 50% chance of the child being born with a medical condition is reason enough to make incest ilegal (unless it's simply the 'ick' factor of a brother and sister sleeping together that makes it a crime?). Should every couple start being evaluated to estimate the percentage chance of their potential children not being one hundred percent healthy? Maybe a 40% chance is too high? Maybe 30%? At what stage does it become a crime? Should it even be one?

Labels: News

Sorry for lack of posting, been trying to get something sorted. Very hush hush don'tcha know.

Anyway, sure I may have seen and blog this previously but it deserves another mention - zoomquilt.

Labels: Arty, Cool

Remember those old text based adventure games? I used to have one on my Spectrum called Rigels Revenge. I always ended up stuck in a basement flat with no way to get out apart from the front door (at which point I'd get shot). Annoyed the hell out of me.

This is infinitely better and comes with pictures....

Labels: Amusing, Arty

This seems like a good idea on paper but I wonder how many people will actually bother to buy them considering the quite large initial outlay? Energy efficient light bulbs are still not that popular I believe and yet they cost about two quid and pay for themselves in just a few months. Will people consider buying something that costs £20-30, needs batteries and may take a year or two to pay for themselves (depending on how many things you leave on and how many locations around the house). Not in large numbers I suspect....

I turn everything off in my house anyway, even down to turning my cordless phone off when I go away for a few days. Not that anyone ever phones me anyway (except my mum)....

Labels: Environmental, Gadgets

Some pretty pictures to look at.

Labels: Arty

End of the world in 2036? Seems like we have one of these giant asteroid scares about once a year nowadays....

Labels: Science

Eighty year old woman drives car her through a DMV office. I may not have blogged this if it wasn't for the fact that Superman showed up after the accident. Didn't help out at all apparently....

Labels: News

The top 25 crimes of the century.

Labels: Interesting

Woman sets fire to lovers bits. Nuff said.

Labels: Weird

For your first weird link post after getting back from a holiday, you have to make it a good one. And what could be better than a drunk squirrel?

Ah my squirrely friend, we've all been there.

Labels: Amusing, Weird

Hey, it wouldn't be a holiday without a few whinges. Here's mine.

Being pestered. This happened twice. First time by a guy called 'Paul' who stopped us on the seafront to ask us a couple of very quick questions. Before we knew it we'd done a short survey, won a bottle of wine and a hoiday, had our ages changed, been living together for two years and were stood inside a travel agents preparing to spend an hour picking a holiday destination. Oh, he was good! Years of being polite stopped me from just telling him to p*ss off even tho it sounded dodgy right from the start - must work on that...

Second time was by a taxi driver trying to get us into his cab before a bus came. As the bus got closer (it was waiting for people getting off a ferry to board) he got increasingly more desparate, telling us it was full or lowering his price (to only 10 times the price of the bus) etc.. His best line "My taxi is very pretty, just like your lovely girlfriend".

Last and probably worst, Luton airport. Our flight got in at 11:30pm, we were tired and we still faced a couple of hours to get back to the car and then drive home. At that time of night we expected to breeze through and be on our way in no time. Yeah, not in England buddy! We had to join a queue of about five hundred other people waiting at passport control and queue for around 30 mins to get through as they only had two people on the desks. If I wasn't so tired I would have been well p*ssed off!

Labels: Personal

I can't remember if I've mentioned it before but I like trying different food. I'm not talking choosing a lasagne because I've not had one for a few months, I'm talking hunting through a restaurant menu for the most unusual dish I can find. I do it a bit when home but when I'm on holiday I feel almost compelled to eat something I've never eaten whenever possible.

Luckily I have a very broad taste and there isn't much I won't eat. I can't remember the last time I picked something I didn't like although the ham, horeseradish sauce and whipped cream starter I had in Prague a couple of years back pushed that a little...

Malta was a good place to try a few new local dishes and the food is generally very good and quite cheap. A nice main dish, bottle of vino and a dessert for both me and Miss C would come in around £25 for the lot. Whilst there I got to sample barracuda, calamari (which I have had before but not cooked whole like this was) and rabbit (sorry Bunni). I was looking forward to quail but they didn't have it the one time I went to choose it and I didn't have chance to try Bragoli which sounded like meat covered in meat and wrapped in meat....

Drinks are nice and cheap out there too - something I took good advantage of. The local beer is Cisk which certainly did the job in the hot weather. Wine - especially the locally made stuff - is a bargain at around £3-4 a bottle in restaurants.

My suggestions for venues would be Lublu in Mgarr, Gozo. It apparently means "I Love" or something like that in Russian. We found it when looking for another restaurant listed in the lonely planet guide and we were glad we did. The chef showed us a lovely platter of fresh fish so we could choose what we wanted and how we wanted it prepared and then proceeded to make a meal using several of the fish types we'd expressed and interest in. I chose the barracuda just because it was the biggest and meanest looking fish on the platter. If you happen to be in the area, it is well worth a visit!

We also tried a lovely little place in Sliema. Was on the Triq It-torri near the bingo hall and was the sort of tiny local place where everyone stops talking and looks at you when you come in. Plus they had a dumb waiter to bring the food up from the kitchens which I loved. Tasty and very cheap it was too.

Labels: Food, Personal

And I'm back - to a cold and wet UK, to an icy flat, to a half dead houseplant (I don't think it likes the cold), to no post, a ton of washing and a hundred or so emails. Oh yes, good to be home.

Rather than a full on update on the trip (which I'll probably never get around to finishing) I thought I'd go for the basics. The need to know stuff. Maybe split into a few sections too - we'll see. Anyway, onward.



The weather in Malta is great - I stupidly never considered getting a sunburn in February so never packed any protection. My poor, poor head. Not sure I could face the full heat of summer! The folks are nice enough and all speak English so I didn't have to embarass myself to badly trying to talk to order things in shops. The countryside is pretty barren and unexciting - lots of rock. The rock is mostly crumbly limestone and combined with the dry weather and fact that half of Malta seems to be a building site, you get a dusty, grubby feeling to a lot of places. The ocean however is beautiful - so clear and green. As I mentioned, there is a lot of building work with lots of ugly tourist resort hotels popping up.

We went to Ħaġar Qim but were a little dissapointed as it wasn't exactly exciting. If you want to see the Hypogeum, book well in advance (we missed out even trying five days in advance in the quiet season). Definitely visit the catherdral in Valletta - doesn't look like much on the outside but inside....



Go and see Gozo and spend a few days relaxing there. If you do, then The Grand Hotel is lovely. Cheery staff, a room that was bigger than my flat and a balcony overlooking the sea where we could sunbathe and drink wine (tho the balcony did cost extra but worth it in my opinion). Don't stay here in Silema unless you want something cheep and not very cheery. Our room was small, grotty and had two single beds pushed together (and single sheets). Luckily when I asked about getting some double sheets we got given a much nicer room which was twice the size. Result! Place also seems full of old people....



The booze is cheap (especially if you go with the local stuff) and they seem to like 80s music. The food is nice. Bus trip are fun. Half the busses are older than me. I noticed the speedo was broken on one but as we never reached more than 20mph I don't think it mattered. The drivers also seem to get to decorate them as they wish and pictures of Jesus or statues of the virgin Mary are pretty common.



Oh, in case you were wondering about the photos, they are a beach on Gozo (which took us a fair jike to get to as they are so few and far between), inside Valletta church, street in Victoria (Gozo) and the church ceiling in Victoria. The last one is lovely and I took a few but unfortunately they involved placing the camera on the floor on a timer in order to keep it still enough to get a clear shot. It was only later I found my head appears in the corner of most of the pictures as I peer over to see if it's done. As for the title of this post, it's a reference to a rather annoying English woman we shared a bus with. Every town, village, hut or rock we passed she would turn to her husband and say "Is that Mdina?" Apparently Mdina is a nice town to visit. We never did. Up next post, food!

Labels: Personal