timfg

Some life changes....

2006-07-11T01:26:00.000+01:00

Not kept this up in the last year or so....decided that the value was in anonymity and not sure what I would write without the cloak allowing me to abuse all and sundry. But, actually, my life's gone through a few changes recently, so I thought I'd jot them down...

1) I changed jobs: After 10 years with KBR (Halliburton) I sensed a general staleness, mouldiness even, and sought a new challenge. So I now work for Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) and jolly pleased I am about it too. There's a sanity about Atkins which I think is mostly about an English Exec and a focus on profit through strategy. It's all rather refreshing, exciting, challenging etc etc. And obviously I now earn megabucks more....well, no actually, but that wasn't the point of moving on. My CV is much happier for it and so am I.

2) I had another daughter, Harriet. Hatty, Etty, Harry, whatever. Three weeks early, on the 25th June 2006. So early that we weren't particularly ready and Al had only just stopped working, pleased her no end. Hatty was induced, which was all rather odd - we turned up at the hospital with an appointment to have a baby. And 10 hours later, we had one.

All very civilised, Al was even kind enough to have an epidural so I could watch England-Ecuador. Still vaguely shell-shocked and struggling to come terms with having a family, rather than a daughter to be honest. Rather delighted though. Clearly my focus was on having a healthy child and I was going to be very happy regardless of whether it was a girl or a boy.

But, actually, if you'd told me I could have two children and offered me a choice... I'd have had two girls. Since that's what I've got, I'm a very happy chap.

Posting from Houston

2005-02-06T22:57:00.000Z

This is where I'm at at at the moment - the Houston America's Hilton. Never stayed here before, and rather nice it is too - free broadband in the rooms for my company and all rather clean and new and luvverly.

Nothing to do with this T&Cs stuff, and frankly it's nice to get a break from that, feels almost a holiday to be here away from that extraordinarily stressful exercise....

This really made my day....

2005-01-19T00:30:00.000Z

Guardian Unlimited Sport | Cricket | Cricket: England ride high with Hoggard

Life not easy at the moment. I am an Employee Rep in a difficult consultation exercise over reductions in T&Cs that has angered more than a few of the several thousand people I work with. And I have been ill, on and off, for most of the last month - which hasn't made me particularly happy. Just colds and coughs and temperatures, but you don't need it over the Christmas period. And we are trying to keep the shop running with a reduced workforce and that's no fun either.

But....England won a fantastic test match yesterday and that's the sort of thing that lifts the spirits: I love a test victory snatched from an inevitable draw. I took yesterday off to deal with some domestic stuff and spent much of it glued to Sky Sports....not least 'cos I saw an England victory at 15-1 on Betfair and couldn't help but risk a couple of quid. A win wasn't likely by any means, but this side, in this series, with the grudges they brought to the pitch.....I though 15s very generous :-)

Bloody lergy

2004-12-01T13:07:00.000Z

Stuck at home, not at all well. Daughter had a bad chest infection last week (got a GP out at 1am) and has handed it off to me. Which sucks really, I have more than enough to do at work at the moment. So here I am, at the keyboard, keeping up with work when I should probably be in bed.

The point of this

2004-10-28T23:36:00.000+01:00

Got in touch with an old friend tonight, who has been reading this blog. Which kind of validates the whole thing really. Life is a tad up and down at the moment, and it's nice to be reminded that there are more important things than my existence on the internet: Shit, I haven't seen this guy for about 20 years!

Top piece of conspiracy theory

2004-09-16T23:50:00.000+01:00

Don't lend it any credence but it's worth a squint. Flash is very good for this kind of paranoia.

Guardian Unlimited | Online | How to save your life

2004-08-22T23:09:00.000+01:00

Very good article in the (excellent) Guardian Online section about the extent to which technology is enabling people to record everything they encounter in their daily lives. The diary as it exists in the modern world, which is something of an extension of the blogging concept: 50 years ago you might have kept a paper based diary, in the last decade, you might have captured your life in a blog like this one, or perhaps published to a static website to achieve much the same, in the future, increasingly, everything you do is recorded in a digital form, and if it isn't you can choose to make it so with a device that you'll probably have in your pocket.

The extent to which you'll want to make this public / restricted to friends and family / private becomes a significant decision, and software is likely to make this a critical part of the decision to publish. Seems to me that everyone will grab the chance to record everything they encounter as it become trivial to do so, and this won't be about what I record, but who I publish it to. Whatever....exciting times..... The Warhol 15 minutes becomes irrelevant as everyone grabs a lifetime in a morass of published lifetimes.....

Still not smoking (!) after 19 days, not a puff. So I have rewarded myself by spending three times what I would have spent on fags on underpants, shirts, TFT monitors and digital cameras. Something of an incentive to remain non-smoking, I have to remain fag free for another 5 weeks to fund all this stuff. But that's not, frankly, a bad thing.

Spent the afternoon at my sisters, as she hosted a 2nd birthday party for all the toddlers borne by the mothers that she shared an antenatal swimming class with. Not a bad do really, another of those that leaves you recognising how much your understanding of the world has changed for having a child....hundreds of toddlers charging around pursued by concerned parents, grins on the faces of all the Mums and Dads. I'd have found this a very non-grinning event before Abby...

Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded

2004-08-09T19:32:00.000+01:00

Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded

Still not smoking after 5 days - although today was the first back at work, which was really hard.

Had my occasional round of seeing what was out there on the browser market a few weeks ago, and gave Firefox a whirl. It is now my default browser because, as they say, it rocks.

Wisley

2004-08-06T20:51:00.000+01:00

Royal Horticultural Society - RHS Garden Wisley

Continuing my change of routine alongside the smoking cessation thing, Al, Abby and I toddled off here today. And jolly good it was too, if just a little hot - like 80+, not a cloud in the sky hot, so we dropped about £15 just buying cold drinks and ice-creams around the gardens. It's the first time Abby has had her very own ice-cream, and Al and I found ourselves thinking the same thing as she ate it: At some point we are going to have to deal with her first dropped ice-cream, which is one of those childhood tragedies where you have to suppress a giggle, because it's so significant for a toddler and so not for a parent.....

But I was impressed - the gardens are really immaculate and an absence of yobs and assholes made for a very pleasant day out. Abby was a bit phased by the absence of other kids, but did her best to elicit cooing from pensioners etc I'll work out how to do the blog picture thing in a bit and put up some shots.

Stopping smoking seems to make your life pass very slowly indeed. That's actually quite a good thing whilst I'm not at work.

Day Off

2004-08-05T18:03:00.000+01:00

Interesting first full day of not smoking. Took today and tomorrow off work as I figured the change of routine would probably be a good idea. Spent most of it updating my web site, which I've been meaning to do for ages. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than it used to be in terms of being easy to maintain and looking consistent. And having something to concentrate on helped a lot.

Took Abby to nursery first thing, which was tough as the journey is full of smoking trigger points. And brought her back at the end of the day, which was also difficult, for the same reason. But I have made the 24hr mark, and feeling quite pleased about that. I even tested myself with a couple of beers at lunchtime. And I smoked so much that, frankly, everything is a trigger point anyway.

Even getting used to the NRT nasal sprays now - they're not pleasant, but they do provide an instant nicotine hit, so will help a lot whilst I get rid of the habitual stuff.

Smoking

2004-08-04T18:55:00.000+01:00

Hadn't occurred to me until just now that, having determined to start blogging alongside the revamp of my web site, I'd also determined to stop smoking. Today. About an hour and a half ago. Which seems a good thing to be recording my thoughts on, if only for my own benefit on reread.

I'm using the NHS smoking cessation service - think this will help, if only because it's another incentive to stop. Got a prescription for NRT, nicotine nasal sprays, which are pretty unpleasant, if the first couple of uses are anything to go by. And I'm finding it quite difficult at the moment, but I guess the first few days are the worst anyway......