It was Valentine's day yesterday. In my opinion one of the most commercialised days in the year - more so than Christmas.
Even so, Kate and myself went out for dinner at The Fox & Raven in Chelmsford. The food there was delicious. The only problem was the wait. I ordered the food at 8.20pm and was told that there would be a wait of about 45 minutes. I thought that was okay since it was a busy evening.
At about 8:40pm, our starter arrived. I had some very nice battered mushrooms, while Kate had chicken satey. So far so good.
Ten minutes later, the starters where cleared, and then began the wait. Eventually one hour after the starters where cleared, our main course arrived. Just in time too as I was about to ask what was going on.
Once we'd finished, I think we had spent the longest time ever in a restaurant. Like I said though, the food was nice so all is forgiven. Well this time anyway.
In the news recently it's been revealed that another police woman has been shot in the line of duty. This time in Nottingham. The question has to be asked now - should the police be routinely armed? It's something that people say will change the police force forever but if gun crime is going to keep on rising, I say go for it. It's about time this country got it's act together and started fighting back against the apparent increase in crime.
Also, the news yesterday the smoking in all bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs etc will be banned is very welcome. Finally I'll be able to venture into any of the above without being suffocated. During the work Christmas meal in 2005, we decided to go to a Wetherspoons restaurant for a drink. When we got in there, none of us could breathe easily and the entire place was filled with a smokey fog. It'll be nice when that situation will never happen again (from Summer 2007).
Even so, Kate and myself went out for dinner at The Fox & Raven in Chelmsford. The food there was delicious. The only problem was the wait. I ordered the food at 8.20pm and was told that there would be a wait of about 45 minutes. I thought that was okay since it was a busy evening.
At about 8:40pm, our starter arrived. I had some very nice battered mushrooms, while Kate had chicken satey. So far so good.
Ten minutes later, the starters where cleared, and then began the wait. Eventually one hour after the starters where cleared, our main course arrived. Just in time too as I was about to ask what was going on.
Once we'd finished, I think we had spent the longest time ever in a restaurant. Like I said though, the food was nice so all is forgiven. Well this time anyway.
In the news recently it's been revealed that another police woman has been shot in the line of duty. This time in Nottingham. The question has to be asked now - should the police be routinely armed? It's something that people say will change the police force forever but if gun crime is going to keep on rising, I say go for it. It's about time this country got it's act together and started fighting back against the apparent increase in crime.
Also, the news yesterday the smoking in all bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs etc will be banned is very welcome. Finally I'll be able to venture into any of the above without being suffocated. During the work Christmas meal in 2005, we decided to go to a Wetherspoons restaurant for a drink. When we got in there, none of us could breathe easily and the entire place was filled with a smokey fog. It'll be nice when that situation will never happen again (from Summer 2007).
I took an interesting phone call at work today. Can't really say what it was though. Actually, I was only taking a message from another department like mine. It's what the message was relating to that was interesting, plus some enquiries I made after the call.
Let's just say it was relating to someone I have worked for within the last few years.
Wasn't much point in writing anything really was there? It's a mystery (to you anyway, not me!)
Let's just say it was relating to someone I have worked for within the last few years.
Wasn't much point in writing anything really was there? It's a mystery (to you anyway, not me!)
The ADSL has returned!
I was right. I didn't get it back on Monday, but today is better than I expected. I spoke to Freeola who said they needed to get on to BT to run various tests and that it could take 3-5 days. This was last night at about 7pm. The signal had actually reappeared by 4:55am (the time of first access to my website).
Wish I knew what went wrong though. I can't imagine BT did any repairs that early in the morning.
It's was Kate and my fourth anniversary yesterday so we went out for dinner to "Back In Time" - an american themed restaurant serving steaks, burgers etc. The food was very nice. I had soup of the day to start - potato and leak which was nicer than it looked since it had very large lumps of potato which I'm not used to. For the main course I had a steak with curly chips, fried onions and salad, and I finished my meal off with a nice large Cappuchino.
The only problem with the restaurant was in the first 5 minutes of our visit. The stupid bartender (who has little idea of customer relations in my opinion and is a little hyperactive) decided it was illegal to serve soft drinks at the bar to be paid for there and then in cash. So I had to summon the manager and explain that there is no law against selling soft drinks and that it only applies to alcoholic drinks. The manager understood that, but the bartender bloke didn't and threw some off hand comment my way.
Twit.
I was right. I didn't get it back on Monday, but today is better than I expected. I spoke to Freeola who said they needed to get on to BT to run various tests and that it could take 3-5 days. This was last night at about 7pm. The signal had actually reappeared by 4:55am (the time of first access to my website).
Wish I knew what went wrong though. I can't imagine BT did any repairs that early in the morning.
It's was Kate and my fourth anniversary yesterday so we went out for dinner to "Back In Time" - an american themed restaurant serving steaks, burgers etc. The food was very nice. I had soup of the day to start - potato and leak which was nicer than it looked since it had very large lumps of potato which I'm not used to. For the main course I had a steak with curly chips, fried onions and salad, and I finished my meal off with a nice large Cappuchino.
The only problem with the restaurant was in the first 5 minutes of our visit. The stupid bartender (who has little idea of customer relations in my opinion and is a little hyperactive) decided it was illegal to serve soft drinks at the bar to be paid for there and then in cash. So I had to summon the manager and explain that there is no law against selling soft drinks and that it only applies to alcoholic drinks. The manager understood that, but the bartender bloke didn't and threw some off hand comment my way.
Twit.
It was Eurovision night again last night. This year the contest was held in Kiev - the capital city of last years winners Ukraine. As usual most of the acts seemed a little crazy, with plenty of mad outfits and bizarre music, and of course the political voting at the end.
This year the UK came third from last with 18 points. Quite poor considering the song (Javine - Light My Fire) wasn't too bad.
It was a fun event though, something I watch every year, and Charlie came over for a beer too, but no Chinese this year.
It was Kate's birthday last Thursday, so I've had a long weekend taking both Thursday and Friday off from work. We went to London for the day and visited the London Dungeons. They were good but they were not scary, unless you're a 10 year old maybe. After that we spent the rest of the day mainly sightseeing, taking a visit to St Paul's Cathedral, the Cutty Sark at Maritime Greenwich, walking under the Thames and back just because we could, taking a boat to Embankment and taking a good look at the Palace of Westminster whilst peering in to all the cars coming in and out of the grounds to see if we could spot any famous politicians (we didn't).
We were going to go for dinner that evening when back in Chelmsford but considering we didn't get back until 9pm and the restaurant closed at 10pm, we postponed that until Friday when we went to Tucano's at about 7pm. It's a Brazilian style restaurant where you pay a set price of around £15 and you can eat all you can. There is a salad bar which you can visit as many times as you wish, and the waiters bring over meats on large skewers which you can either take or pass on. There are about 13 different meats and they will keep coming up until you tell them to stop. It's certainly not a restaurant you would visit if you're a vegetarian. I'm not though and neither is Kate so we both liked it. Although I do have one criticism about it - the music was too loud and bassy. It made the waiters quite difficult to understand some times.
I spent a lot of cash at E-Buyer and Quiet PC yesterday getting the following:
The motherboard, processor, cooler, RAM and DVD will all go into my new machine which will be fitted with the 60GB hard drive, 128Mb graphics card and the 3 sound cards from my current 1GHz Duron, which will receive an old 32Mb graphics card and the new 250Gb hard drive. The old machine will then be put to use as a server, holding all files and operating the web server, therefore replacing the AMD 400MHz PC which is currently fulfilling that role.
These parts should be with me by Tuesday so I will have lots of fun putting the computer together.
This year the UK came third from last with 18 points. Quite poor considering the song (Javine - Light My Fire) wasn't too bad.
It was a fun event though, something I watch every year, and Charlie came over for a beer too, but no Chinese this year.
It was Kate's birthday last Thursday, so I've had a long weekend taking both Thursday and Friday off from work. We went to London for the day and visited the London Dungeons. They were good but they were not scary, unless you're a 10 year old maybe. After that we spent the rest of the day mainly sightseeing, taking a visit to St Paul's Cathedral, the Cutty Sark at Maritime Greenwich, walking under the Thames and back just because we could, taking a boat to Embankment and taking a good look at the Palace of Westminster whilst peering in to all the cars coming in and out of the grounds to see if we could spot any famous politicians (we didn't).
We were going to go for dinner that evening when back in Chelmsford but considering we didn't get back until 9pm and the restaurant closed at 10pm, we postponed that until Friday when we went to Tucano's at about 7pm. It's a Brazilian style restaurant where you pay a set price of around £15 and you can eat all you can. There is a salad bar which you can visit as many times as you wish, and the waiters bring over meats on large skewers which you can either take or pass on. There are about 13 different meats and they will keep coming up until you tell them to stop. It's certainly not a restaurant you would visit if you're a vegetarian. I'm not though and neither is Kate so we both liked it. Although I do have one criticism about it - the music was too loud and bassy. It made the waiters quite difficult to understand some times.
I spent a lot of cash at E-Buyer and Quiet PC yesterday getting the following:
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000g S478 I865PE ATX Sound GIG LAN USB 2.0 FSB800 SATA100 Retail Box
- Processor: Intel Celeron® D320 2.4GHz Skt478 FSB533 256KB Cache Retail Boxed CPU
- RAM: Crucial CT6464Z40B 512mb DDR 400MHz PC3200 CL=3 Memory Module
- DVD: LG 16x52 DVD-Rom Drive - OEM Biege
- Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB UIDE 100 7200rpm 8mb Cache- OEM
- CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS6500B-ALCU Pentium 4 S478 Flower Cooler
The motherboard, processor, cooler, RAM and DVD will all go into my new machine which will be fitted with the 60GB hard drive, 128Mb graphics card and the 3 sound cards from my current 1GHz Duron, which will receive an old 32Mb graphics card and the new 250Gb hard drive. The old machine will then be put to use as a server, holding all files and operating the web server, therefore replacing the AMD 400MHz PC which is currently fulfilling that role.
These parts should be with me by Tuesday so I will have lots of fun putting the computer together.
The clocks went back an hour today. It's when that happens you know Christmas really isn't that far off! It's 5:20 now and pretty much dark outside - this is what it's going to be like when I get home from work (Ok it's cloudy tonight so it might not be quite so bad).
I've been listening to Chris Moyles over the weekend, for the first time in ages using the Listen Again thingamy on Radio One Online. I don't usually listen much anymore since he does the Breakfast Show and I'm usually off to work before I can listen to 1/2 an hour.
I thought I'd have a listen to Wednesday's show because of the sad news announced midday Tuesday that John Peel died. It was quite a good show still with lots of memories from Chris and his team, and people texting in with their thoughts - and some half decent music.
Anyway, after listening to that, I decided to listen to listen to other shows from last week and they're still not to bad.
Other than that, it's been a quiet weekend. Went round Charlie's yesterday to assist with the assembling of some connectors in preparation for the new studio installation at HRC. Today has mostly consisted of tidying up my room and tiny re-arrangements - I moved my air cooler from my left side next to the computer cupboard to my right hand side next to the desk which is a bit more accessible me being right handed, plus it also creates a nice place for Kate's bean bag (which I tend to trip over when entering my room in the dark). I've also tucked the telephone extension cable under the carpet so it all looks a bit tidier now!
Later...NOT with Jools Holland... :-)
Kate found this rather amusing game about a drunken German (which means the language is German too - but don't worry you should be able to figure it out.)
I've been listening to Chris Moyles over the weekend, for the first time in ages using the Listen Again thingamy on Radio One Online. I don't usually listen much anymore since he does the Breakfast Show and I'm usually off to work before I can listen to 1/2 an hour.
I thought I'd have a listen to Wednesday's show because of the sad news announced midday Tuesday that John Peel died. It was quite a good show still with lots of memories from Chris and his team, and people texting in with their thoughts - and some half decent music.
Anyway, after listening to that, I decided to listen to listen to other shows from last week and they're still not to bad.
Other than that, it's been a quiet weekend. Went round Charlie's yesterday to assist with the assembling of some connectors in preparation for the new studio installation at HRC. Today has mostly consisted of tidying up my room and tiny re-arrangements - I moved my air cooler from my left side next to the computer cupboard to my right hand side next to the desk which is a bit more accessible me being right handed, plus it also creates a nice place for Kate's bean bag (which I tend to trip over when entering my room in the dark). I've also tucked the telephone extension cable under the carpet so it all looks a bit tidier now!
Later...NOT with Jools Holland... :-)
Kate found this rather amusing game about a drunken German (which means the language is German too - but don't worry you should be able to figure it out.)