Andrew's diary

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Sunday, 30 June 2002

Spent the day on the sofa in my pyjamas feeling ill. Desperate to get better though as I can't afford to be off work next week - Shivani's last day on Friday and David The Work Experience lad is starting the Monday after. As Dad's keen on pointing out though: "the cemetery's full of indispensible people".

Saturday, 29 June 2002

Woke up feeling ill, either due to my ear or a bad head - or a combination of both. But, family turned up to help lay a patio base for our shed and do some general decorating. Unfortunately, my ear's started hurting and I don't feel too good, but the patio gets laid and the hall and garden both look much better.

By the time the barbeque starts I've started shivering and feeling sick so don't eat much food. Everyone says I don't look well (duh!) and so Mum and Dad take me to the hospital. Two hours later I'm out with a course of anti-biotics to treat "a rather nasty ear infection".

Thursday, 27 June 2002

Phil's upgrading the web server on this machine - will it go according to plan and be back up by later this afternoon, we'll see.

Ordered a shed online, will have to flatten the ground this weekend.

Wednesday, 26 June 2002

4-6 weeks for a new shed? By 'eck, that's a long time. Funny comments in Dave's guestbook. I don't think I'd be brave enough to let random people comment on my website, publicly.

Monday, 24 June 2002

More Hendy Ford crapness: they've managed to lose the service book for the Fiesta which they were going to find and give back to us when the Focus went in for its service today.

Absolutely gorgeous weather's continuing - is this summer?!

Saturday, 22 June 2002

Tried to get the Bush Internet Surf Set to connect in leased line mode to another machine. Failed. Used Resources:$.Resources.Test.!ModTerm and found that AT&L1 gives "ERROR". ATI returns "Venus 33.6 ISA". Frustrating.

Friday, 21 June 2002

Andrew left at lunchtime - one down, two to go and then I'm the team leader of me and me alone. In the evening drove to Guildford for Chris' birthday curry, a good time was had by both me and Mel.

Thursday, 20 June 2002

Went to The Dolphin at lunchtime to send Andrew off. Unfortunately, had to leave work shortly after 4 with a bad head and then spent over 5 hours in bed.

Wednesday, 19 June 2002

Adrian took the team out to a quiet country pub as it's Andrew's last day on Friday - was really nice.

Sat in the lounge whilst Mel watched Big Brother - I can't believe that someone is so stupid to think that Mother Theresa, Inspector Morse, Sherlock Holmes and Mr. Heinstein (sic) are all related.

Picked up Better Star Wars from Gerph's website.

Tuesday, 18 June 2002

Cherie Blair has said that she feels sorry for those in the Middle East who feel that they've got no choice but to blow themselves up. I'm not the biggest fan of the Blairs but the amount of abuse she's been getting for this "gaff" when 19 Israelis were today killed by a suicide bomber borders on the preposterous.

David Blunkett has withdrawn the RIP amendments for more "consultation".

Monday, 17 June 2002

Received a reply from our MP saying that they will, indeed, be fighting the RIP adjustments - but then he is a Conservative and we've got a Labour government.

Saturday, 15 June 2002

Well, it actually happened - John's a married man. Nearly didn't get there on time as it took an hour to go 10 miles on the M6, but it was good seeing all the old school gang again. Much beer was consumed, especially after England won at the football.

Friday, 14 June 2002

Just after leaving home, got a phone call from Mel who'd managed to put a hole the size of a 50p piece in her front tyre. Unfortunately, the wheel required application of both WD-40 and a hammer to get it off :-/

Headed on up to Mum and Dad's for dinner. John's wedding tomorrow.

Wednesday, 12 June 2002

"Bored now"

Three down... :-)

Oh, and England drew at the football and Hendy Ford are still crap. Also mailed our MP about the RIP ammendments.

Tuesday, 11 June 2002

Got an email from a firm which shall remain nameless saying they couldn't complete my order as they've got a minimum £20 order limit - they didn't really answer why their website let me do it.

Found that Argos were selling something similar so popped in on the way home from work and then used said SVHS->SCART adapter to start catching up with Buffy episodes that we missed due to the death of ITV Digital. Broadband's great - it's like having a massive resource of people with video tapes of stuff you can borrow :-)

Saturday, 08 June 2002

David and Robert came down last night and today we got loads done: re-did the front garden and tidied the back, removed a ton of crap from the loft and so on. Much appreciated.

Wednesday, 05 June 2002

Went back to work as the Fiesta was going in from its 3 year service. But why the hell are Ford dealers so utterly and completely crap? The three year service on a Fiesta is supposed to cost about 140 quid, but as a "valued customer" they sent me a voucher for 25% discount on labour, and 10% on parts. But they don't clean the car inside or out for that money. And when they discovered some work which needed doing (which, was highlighted as a possibility at the MOT in January) they reveal the discount doesn't apply to that work.

Also, Downer (the letting agency for the flat in Winchester) have claimed that the flat isn't clean enough and want to charge 100 quid for "light cleaning". This, coincidentally of course, is the same figure as the check-out fee that we negotiated away when we found out the washing machine was knackered and wouldn't be replaced. So we're going back in to clean it.