I think our heating system must be jinxed. None of us have felt warm here for a good while. Early in the New Year we ran out of oil and now the boiler has broken and the repair man has been out to fix it. It was freezing inside the building last night so what he must have been feeling outsider in the boiler room as he waved his girlfriend's hair dryer over the burner in an attempt to convince to come back to life I don't know.
We have a couple of guys coming today who sell electronic whiteboards. I saw the boards demonstrated a couple of weeks ago and they looked mighty. I wonder if they're a bit like many modern toys nowadays where you end up playing on them rather than do useful productive things like blog all day long....
Monday, 11 January 2010
No.214 Avatar & Other Things Quite Unreal
I saw Avatar over the weekend. It was nearly a great film but lacked plot/storyline. The special effects however truly are exceptional. Its use of 3D actually added to the film rather than being at all gimmicky when you spend half the time dodging all the spears and arrows coming out at you from the screen.
On the subject of not buses but trains I was on the train the other day and overheard the following conversation between two people working as waitresses :
First Person : "Anyway this table said to me what would you recommend and I felt like saying well how should I know I'm the waitress not the chef"
Second Person : "Yeh you should have done. Did yeh?"
Customer service and passion for what you do - still a bit to go me thinks?
Saturday, 9 January 2010
No.213 Of Public Enemies
Salt hey? It used to be public enemy No.1. Now we just can't get enough of it or so it seems. According to the radio this morning flat soled shoes are not as safe as those with heels. Personally I thought it was tread/grip that counts.
Radio today is not what it used to be. In the good old days (when times hadn't changed lad - hear the Yorkshire accent if you will) a radio DJ would talk to you the listener. Now the listener eavesdrops in on a conversation between the DJ and another DJ, the Newsreader who doesn't appear to want to let go her spot at the top of the hour, a weather forecaster who thinks her moment has come or Sally bloomin Traffic. I was listening to Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe the other night on the way home. I like both of these broadcasters but why put them together when they're truly awful and spend far too much time talking and bigging up each other's none intresting banter? People used to complain about Tony Blackburn (and rightly so) but he wouldn't let anyone near his show. He threw in a whole lot of unpc humour but played an awful lot of really good music. May be there was just more good music around in his day.
So much to ponder....
Radio today is not what it used to be. In the good old days (when times hadn't changed lad - hear the Yorkshire accent if you will) a radio DJ would talk to you the listener. Now the listener eavesdrops in on a conversation between the DJ and another DJ, the Newsreader who doesn't appear to want to let go her spot at the top of the hour, a weather forecaster who thinks her moment has come or Sally bloomin Traffic. I was listening to Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe the other night on the way home. I like both of these broadcasters but why put them together when they're truly awful and spend far too much time talking and bigging up each other's none intresting banter? People used to complain about Tony Blackburn (and rightly so) but he wouldn't let anyone near his show. He threw in a whole lot of unpc humour but played an awful lot of really good music. May be there was just more good music around in his day.
So much to ponder....
Friday, 8 January 2010
No.212 Of Masochism in all its forms
Oh there's pain to be had in our new gym at the moment. That Ab Kind Pro machine really gets to your stomach muscles. Add to this that the temperature in the gym at 7.30a.m., was about - 4 and you really come out feeling you hate yourself.
Loads of meetings today including one with a guy who claims he can teach creativity! Now this promises to be interesting. I'm still reading "Unlimited Power" by Anthony Robbins. I can't make it out. It's either utter brilliance or complete tripe. I'm meeting a performance coach today and will ask her whether she likes tripe.
I'm wondering if it is tripe actually that first led me to consider being a vegetarian at the age of about 8. My Mum used to eat it when we visited my Gran's in Chester. They used buy it fresh from the market and spoon it in raw with lashing of vinegar! Ehhhhh!
Bring on the weekend...
Loads of meetings today including one with a guy who claims he can teach creativity! Now this promises to be interesting. I'm still reading "Unlimited Power" by Anthony Robbins. I can't make it out. It's either utter brilliance or complete tripe. I'm meeting a performance coach today and will ask her whether she likes tripe.
I'm wondering if it is tripe actually that first led me to consider being a vegetarian at the age of about 8. My Mum used to eat it when we visited my Gran's in Chester. They used buy it fresh from the market and spoon it in raw with lashing of vinegar! Ehhhhh!
Bring on the weekend...
Monday, 4 January 2010
No.211 Of Mr Argos & Mr Roger Black
I woke at 6.30a.m. today contemplating one of my New Year Resolutions to get fit again, the cold swimming pool that awaited just 30 minutes or so ahead and any plausible excuse not to do it. It came at 7a.m. with a phone call. "Mr. Where's Legal-Island? Is it an industrial estate?" It was the delivery man from Argos. And he like so many others looking for us was lost. I gave him directions promised there'd be somebody there to let him in in half an hour and shot to work. The pool will still be there tomorrow after all.
Mr Argos Man was delivering a Roger Black exercise bike for the gym. Wasn't Roger Black a runner not a cyclist? May be he trained on a bike. Anyway the contraption has arrived making up number two of four torture units we have planned for the gym. We await the cross trainer and a punch bag - the latter of which is likely to have all sorts of therapeutic uses me thinks particularly in a month in which we have company appraisals.
The team is back today. Some have had a two week break. Others 3 or 4. One has had 6 months. Bring it on say I. It should be good.
Mr Argos Man was delivering a Roger Black exercise bike for the gym. Wasn't Roger Black a runner not a cyclist? May be he trained on a bike. Anyway the contraption has arrived making up number two of four torture units we have planned for the gym. We await the cross trainer and a punch bag - the latter of which is likely to have all sorts of therapeutic uses me thinks particularly in a month in which we have company appraisals.
The team is back today. Some have had a two week break. Others 3 or 4. One has had 6 months. Bring it on say I. It should be good.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
No. 210 Of Rubbishing Classics
Ehhh. Why don't I listen to my friends? Why did I go see the latest Sherlock Holmes movie when everyone I had talked to had assured me it was rubbish?
Sherlock Holmes a bare knuckle champion fighter for heavens sakes? Sherlock Holmes a dirty unhygienic slob? I don't think so. Who is Hollywood going to misrepresent next week I wonder?
Currently I'm reading "The Mind Gym". It's interesting but seems to fly in the face of what a lot of experts (certainly those in Neurology) say about how the brain functions and how you can keep it in shape. All very confusing....
Sherlock Holmes a bare knuckle champion fighter for heavens sakes? Sherlock Holmes a dirty unhygienic slob? I don't think so. Who is Hollywood going to misrepresent next week I wonder?
Currently I'm reading "The Mind Gym". It's interesting but seems to fly in the face of what a lot of experts (certainly those in Neurology) say about how the brain functions and how you can keep it in shape. All very confusing....
Friday, 1 January 2010
No.209 Of New Year Resolutions
The New Year hey? The time when we make new resolutions and break them before the week is out.
So here are mine :
* Read more and watch less T.V. I'd be inclined to jettison the T.V. bit altogether only I would miss the really good stuff which is to be found if you scan the programme listings closely enough. And how would I have survived last year without classic T.V moments like Sue Boyle rocking the XFactor?
* Surround myself by positive people. Cut out the negative ones. Best advice anyone can give themselves..
* Stay fit. Yes another 12 months of fitting off the flab is called for. This must involve a combination of running to work, swimming and using Legal-Island's new gym as soon as it opens. Come on Legal-Island my festive flab is grinning at you.
* Visit London more. Once a month. That's 12 times this year. That sounds good. Really good.
On another subject completely, I was listening to the BBC World Service today. It was interesting. They were interviewing young people in Shrewsbury who were unemployed. The journalist made the point that they appeared completely despondent and very negative. He said that he's interviewed teenagers in other countries where the unemployment rate is 60% and higher but not discovered such negativity. I guess his point was that you more or less choose the mood you want to be in and your best chance of getting out of a situation is to believe you can do it. May be like me he's just been reading Tony Robbin's book "The Power Within". Big stuff that .
So here are mine :
* Read more and watch less T.V. I'd be inclined to jettison the T.V. bit altogether only I would miss the really good stuff which is to be found if you scan the programme listings closely enough. And how would I have survived last year without classic T.V moments like Sue Boyle rocking the XFactor?
* Surround myself by positive people. Cut out the negative ones. Best advice anyone can give themselves..
* Stay fit. Yes another 12 months of fitting off the flab is called for. This must involve a combination of running to work, swimming and using Legal-Island's new gym as soon as it opens. Come on Legal-Island my festive flab is grinning at you.
* Visit London more. Once a month. That's 12 times this year. That sounds good. Really good.
On another subject completely, I was listening to the BBC World Service today. It was interesting. They were interviewing young people in Shrewsbury who were unemployed. The journalist made the point that they appeared completely despondent and very negative. He said that he's interviewed teenagers in other countries where the unemployment rate is 60% and higher but not discovered such negativity. I guess his point was that you more or less choose the mood you want to be in and your best chance of getting out of a situation is to believe you can do it. May be like me he's just been reading Tony Robbin's book "The Power Within". Big stuff that .
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