Ending On A Poem

It's almost a week since I've updated. It's a long time since I've been that slack.

All last week I was in and out of a major funk, which brought with it general crotchetiness and a short temper. For the most part I think that was a come-down from the weekend, which hit me full force on Wednesday, turning me into the angriest 31 year old software developer living in Warwick.

Thursday was almost a good day at work, possibly partly because I was by that time looking forward to the evening, when we'd finally made plans to go and see Terminator 3. My thoughts on it are going on another page, to provide spoiler protection for those who care and haven't seen it. That being said, it was out a fortnight by the time I got to see it, and it seems that most of the people who I would expect to want to see it have already seen it. To sum up my feelings on it, I was surprised. Pleasantly. Given that when I saw the first trailer for it I thought it was going to be awful, it's a fantastic effort. I'm not sure what James Cameron thinks of it, but I thought it lived up to his "legacy" quite well. Probably not as good as T2, but a worthy follow-on.

On the way back from the cinema on Thursday we had an interesting conversation. Comments on the general subject of marriage came up (brought up by Alison), giving me a chance to put into words thoughts that had been bouncing around my head during the run up to my brother's wedding.

Now, I've kinda voiced my thoughts on this subject in this diary before, but a small recap wouldn't hurt. Basically, Alison and I are both of the mind that we've already made a commitment to each other, and that we don't need to stand in front of all our family and friends to make that commitment. However, we both acknowledge the fact that there are certain advantages to being married, and if for practical purposes it proved to be a good idea, then we would do so.

My thoughts in recent weeks have been along the lines of wanting to find out sooner rather than later just how much of a practical necessity it is for us - it doesn't bother me which way we end up going, I'd just like to know which way it's gonna be.

This threw Alison a little. She was more of a mind that we'd just go with the flow. However, she did seem to understand my feelings. Quite what we'll do, I don't know. I get the feeling the onus is on me to do the necessary research. One of the amusing things that came out of the conversation was when I told Alison that it had been on my mind for a while, but that I hadn't brought the subject up myself because I didn't want her to run a mile. She responded by calling me her "little coward". She said it in such an endearingly cute voice that I couldn't take it as an insult. I tried to take offence but it didn't work. In the end I settled for disbelief that she'd said it. That seemed to work without any contradictions.

Friday I worked a half-day. I'm fairly sure a good portion of this half-day was spent talking to people about T3. Also, for the fifth day in a row, K commented on how she couldn't believe it had already been Bro's wedding. K is a colleague I share an office with, and she's getting married in less than a month's time, so I guess for her Bro's wedding was a bit of a milestone in the run up to it.

During the half-day I also managed to more or less exhaust the VB programming in the project I'm currently working on. There's a little bit more to do tomorrow but after that it will be pretty much it. And then my current assignment finishes this Friday. But then, that's just an aside.

Friday lunchtime my parents turned up. They stopped over Friday night on their way to a gathering of a small group of my Dad's old school friends, over Bedford way. One of the reasons for stopping was that it was my Dad's birthday on Saturday. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

On Friday night, we took my parents to a Chinese restaurant in Leamington that we'd been meaning to try for some time. It was one of these places that does it as an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet(TM), like the place in Stratford where the signing class had its farewell meal in June. In terms of presentation and decoration, it was more simplistic than the Stratford place, but it terms of the food it was much nicer. The place in Stratford has something like a six week waiting list for bookings but I have no idea why - the food was all pretty bland. The Leamington place, on the other hand, was all gorgeous food. It was also cheaper. Yum.

Saturday morning amused Alison greatly. In the hours of the morning that weren't exactly early but which could be considered unsociable I was tossing and turning a lot, trying to get back to sleep. Now, one of the things I do when I'm like this is babble. I'm well aware of what I'm saying, and that its utter nonsense, but for some reason that doesn't stop me saying it. Alison was wide awake and reading so she was also well aware of what I was saying, and playing along to see what else I'd say. The conversation that amused her went like this:

Me: Hun?
Her: Yes?
Me: Where do you get your super-powers from?
Her: (pause) Softie.
(Softie is my teddy)
Me: What's your special weakness?
Her: (shorter pause) Townsend.
(Townsend is her teddy)
Me: Oh. That's a bummer.

This can be par for the course sometimes when I'm half-asleep. However, on the surreality scale it's nothing compared to conversations I've had with Alison when she's talked in her sleep.

On Saturday morning Alison took my Mum shopping while my Dad and I tackled my latest DIY venture. Since we're changing phone providers and will no longer have two lines, there is a small complication in that we still need a phone connection for the computer to dial up to get Alison's email. However, the new phone line has a single point downstairs, and the computer is upstairs. That's right, we had to wire in a telephone extension. This involved dropping a wire down the inside of a wall. Always good fun.

The efforts with my Dad were frustrating, but ruled out the most straightforward options. After he and Mum left Alison and I headed out, leaving the wire for the time being and going round looking for cars for Alison. She's decided her current car is past it, and that she wants to replace it by the end of the month (when the tax runs out). We visited a couple of places by where she works, then went for a wander round Redditch town centre - always nice. *Cough*

On our return Alison talked me into dropping a weight on a string down the inside of the wall - something I wasn't convinced was going to be much help. Naturally, it worked first time, and we then used the string to pull the wire down. Anyone, feel free to remind me when I forget, Alison knows best.

I left the rest of the job until today. We now have a fully functional phone point upstairs to go with the one downstairs.

Finally, I'm gonna post something I meant to put up here over a week ago. Remember the magnetic poetry we got in Wales? I've decided to share one of my first magnetic poems. Alison gave me the word/subject "chant" as a starting point, and I built it from there.

The whispering chant
Reminding the lazy sky
Summer is here.
Delicate wax symphony.
Sweet honey beat.
"We Produce And Sing."

No euphemisms, it's about bees. Hopefully you got that.