Windows Update

Right then!

Haven't updated on here for a while. Being back at the old place of work (see previous entry) has meant that I've been venting short bursts of angst on the LJ, so have had less to write about on here. Let's rectify this, by getting down and dirty with the facts.

Well, not surprisingly, the work sucks. But it is keeping me busy and that is becoming a good thing. I'm getting into the swing of things again and I'm feeling less like I'm just sitting around waiting for today to happen.

Last week I spent the majority of my time chatting online, as for various reasons Alison was pretty much busy all week and thus opportunities to spend time with her were lacking. Mostly this had to do with a concert that finally took place this weekend. I was mocked throughout the week (mostly by the possibly-not-entirely-straight admirer of BDSFG - also see previous entry) as gradually I reinstalled drivers and the like after the not-entirely-necessary rebuild that took place the week before.

Then, on Friday night, I figured I'd give one last go to trying to get the cable modem to work via an ethernet connection instead of a USB connection. In principle, that's all very good, but there is a proverb which states "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it". Wise words indeed. My tinkering not only knocked the TCP/IP stack over, it destroyed it in an explosion that left only a small pillar of smoke with a pair of boots at the bottom of it, in time-honoured comedic fashion (it's entirely possible I did the Network equivalent of cutting the red wire instead of the blue wire). Various acts of desperation failed to correct this, up to and including running the Windows 2000 repair facility (fat lot of fucking use), and so at 2230 on Friday night I commenced another Windows rebuild. Soooooooo how I wanted to end the evening. Finally got to bed at 1am after leaving it downloading SP4. SP4 can now be burned onto a CD to cut out download time in future. Or I could pay attention to the advice people give me and ghost my C and D drives. Once I finish installing all the utils I know and love.

On Saturday afternoon Anne and Jess turned up with pressies - belated birthday pressies. The pressies have been well documented on the LJ so I won't go through them again now. Suffice it to say that they are fucking cool pressies and I am dead chuffed and very very grateful.

Saturday evening we excursed to Rugby, there to see a gig given by a Wind Ensemble that Alison was dep'ing for (note to non-musical types, dep'ing = deputising, ie, filling in gaps in the line-up). While I was paying for tickets Jess suddenly found that one of her friends - a friend she had relayed an amusing story about shortly before we left Warwick, a friend who lived in Rugby, a friend who played lots of musical instruments - was a permanent member of the Wind Ensemble. Moreover, this friend knew of Anne only as Jess's 'friend from work', as Jess's mother had forbidden Jess from telling anyone who didn't already know that she was making with the lady-lovin'. Naturally I treated this as an excellent opportunity to make unhelpful comments to Anne while she and Jess tried not to give anything away.

Nothing was given away, as far as I know. Other than what could be inferred from the fact that they turned up at the place together. Early on in the night I remarked to Anne that 'friend from work' was a good contender for becoming a euphemism for 'other stuff'.

Anne and I both scribbled at length on the back of the quiz sheets that had been handed out to us, jotting down various ideas for our works (or in Anne's case currently, potential works) of fiction, rather than putting effort into answering the quiz. Anne apparently found the conductor to be inspiration of some sort for one the characters in what she was planning. I was more distilling existing ideas down into more detail in order to get the last bit of the book off the starting blocks.

The last part of the night was spent more predictably, with the ladies imbibing alcohol and ice cream, and me just mucking around with Transformers and having my bids beaten by subsequent non-payers on eBay.

On Sunday some evil extra-dimensional presence removed an hour of time from the Universe thus depriving us of an hour's sleep. Alison had to leave early for a rehearsal for the afternoon's concert, and I had a mini breakfast before returning to bed in an effort to get more sleep. Ultimately this proved not to be possible, and instead GTA3 turned out to be a better way to pass the time.

Alison's parents turned up after lunch, and my work on the new doors and the AV unit held up to scrutiny from Alison's Dad. And when I say scrutiny, I do not exaggerate. Well, not by much.

The concert was fantastic. Sadly Anne and Jess couldn't stay around quite that long and so missed out on Rhapsody in Blue and The 1812 Overture (impossible to hear now without images of a red, white and blue DRD springing to mind). The 1812is dead good and all, but I do have a small complaint about it, which was not the orchestra's fault, I must admit. Because the ending of it is so well known, the rest of it ends up being one big long tease. Enjoyable, but such a tease.

The day was rounded off with a nice meal out at Ask, including the indulgence of having Cookies and Cream Cheesecake. Yum.

Oh, and lol at Radio 1's Jo Whiley today, for reading out a piece about how there's a group trying to stop too many Americanisms sneaking into spoken English, and then saying "Right, we're totally going to abide by that." Kudos, girl.