Right which muppet wrote Access? Come on, own up... You've got until the count of 3...

It's simply appalling. I've just spent ages trying to paste 29 new entries into a table. They were essentially duplicates of the existing 29 entries, but with one half of the joint primary key altered and a few other fields modified. Access point-blank refused claiming it would violate the joint primary key. Bollocks would it. Eventually after half an hour of trying to coax it into pasting I removed the primary key, pasted the fields and turned it back on. Oh and what a surprise - no violation of the primary key. Who'd have thought it.

And what is with the ridiculous use of dialogue boxes? Every time I see that error I have to read it 5 or 6 times before clicking a button - I never know which to go for. What an appalling bit of user interface design from a company that has some of the strictest guidelines for user interface design. Microsoft should be ashamed of this product, even more so than their usual crap.

Well I see people are, in fact, reading my blog :-)

-!- Topic for #aber: DUCKI AND THE BOY TO WED. EWWWWWWWWWWWW.

-!- Topic set by ^Stuii^ [Tue Mar 2 09:20:14 2004]

So where do I begin?

Friday I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be in work or not. I checked my email and there was nothing to suggest otherwise. I rang various numbers on the campus until I got an answer and asked if the building was open. I was told yes, so I started the trudge to work. When I got there I decided I would start digging my car out from under all the snow before going in. Half an hour later the car was still barely visible, and so I went inside to warm up a little.

I'd not been in 15 minutes when I received an email from the head of personnel saying that the University was closing. Great. So I decided to brave the roads and drive to Newbury. I dug the car out some more, and then drove home to get my stuff together. There was no parking near my house so I ended up trudging all the way to and from the seafront to collect my things.

Just outside of Capel Bangor (if I remember correctly) the car was feeling a little sluggish, and I glanced down at the speedometer as it slogged up the hill and noticed a little red warning light - the temperature gauge. Shit. There was nowhere to pull over though, so I had to keep going. On the flat it went off, but on the hills it came on. Not a good sign. At the first available stop I pulled the car off the road and cleared some snow off the various ventilation grills. This seemed to help a little, but it wasn't long before I had to take it off the road again. I rang my Dad to see what he had to say - he told me exactly what I was thinking.

Luckily I had brought a litre bottle of water with me, as I was expecting to get thirsty in the car. That all went in. I managed to get to the next garage and then another litre and a half went in along with some antifreeze/coolant mix. After that the journey was uneventful - I didn't even use a map or the instructions, I just knew the way.

It was nice seeing Liz so early. We had a nice relaxed evening watching DVDs (Interview with the Vampire and Blade. Notice a theme there? ;-)

On Saturday we did a bit of shopping and then walked to Kintbury and got the train back. It was a nice walk but thoroughly exhausted me. I've become a bit of a lazy sod since getting the car. We chilled out for the rest of the evening and watched some Futurama. We had planned to watch Dark City, but then ended up having an incrediby early night as the walk had worn us out.

Sunday was, of course, the 29th and so Liz asked me to marry her and I said yes :-) It was all a bit of a laugh and a joke, so don't go rushing out to buy that new hat or a suit just yet! However this does of course mean we are, technically, engaged... the best kind of engaged :-)

We set out early to go to Kintbury again, but we also walked back again this time. Liz put me to shame in a few places by walking faster than I could keep up. Her fitness has really improved recently, and mine is crap with not doing any exercise.

When we got back I checked the car over - the checks I should have done before setting out for Newbury - and wasn't at all surprised to find a leak in the coolant system. I then drove back by way of the M4 toll bridge, as I decided it had to be better than messing around getting lost in Hereford again. Got back to a freezing cold flat with no food. The sheets on my bed were so cold that it hurt to get in.

Then today I went to work and did work stuff. On the way home I ran out of windscreen-washer, which couldn't have happened at a more opportunistic moment as I was on my way to Halfords at the time to get a hose-clip for the leaky radiator. Also went to Safeway and got conned out of £31 on food.

Suddenly realised at about 19:30 that I was supposed to be going to Surfr's for a beer and video-games evening. Seems he also forgot about it, so it has been postponed once again to Wednesday evening :-p

Having just got back from Newbury I am exhausted and so have decided not to blog today. I shall back-blog tomorrow when I can focus correctly, and when I'm not so damn cold. Now I'm off to bed.

Well I'm back home again now having abandoned my car on the campus and walked all the way back. The porter came round and told us that he was closing the place up. Penglais hill is in total chaos - cars queueing all the way from Waunfawr to the one-way system in town as there have been various crashes. Just walking down the hill was hard work, I wouldn't want to try and drive it.

Stopped off in the Waunfawr CO-OP to get a packet of crisps, and was amazed by the huge queues. Everyone was buying milk and bread, and a few were buying vegetables too. It's just a bit of snow, it'll be gone in a few days. Why rush out and panic-buy bread and milk? It just causes issues later on when supply can't meet the sudden influx in demand. Stupid people. I have plenty of milk to last but, admittedly, no bread. Not that it matters. I have plenty of tins to eat, some veg etc. No problem.

Going to Newbury tomorrow is looking less and less likely as time goes on. I've just heard that the trains aren't running either now, so I couldn't use that option - if I could afford the ticket ... and had the patience.

Burt has taken some nice pictures of the chaos.

Snow! Tons of the stuff. Currently I am stuck on the campus as the road out is too dangerous to drive on (there are loads of cars stuck on it, and there have been several crashes) and watching the rather mesmerising snow. The building is almost certainly about to be closed, but I can't get hold of anyone to find out. Shall give it a while and then I'll walk home I guess.

Yesterday Ricey turned up in Aber rather unexpectedly so we all went to the Gog for beer, rather than going to Surfr's to play games. Burt drove Ricey down to mine, so Burt then drove home with me following him where I picked him up and we all then went to the Gog in my car - making me the "Designated Driver", obviously. So nothing more than coke for me. Not that I was bothered, I just wanted to get out and socialise, drinking's not important.

When we got to Llanbadarn it was very eery. With primrose hill being dug up it is quiet around Llanbadarn anyway, but with the snow it was deadly silent.

Well I missed my first (non-weekend) blog yesterday. I don't tend to blog on weekends as I'm usually too busy doing stuff to blog about. Yesterday nothing much happened really and so the blog didn't happen.

Today hasn't been particularly exciting either as it happens. Played badminton at lunch as usual and didn't do too badly. Didn't win or anything, but had fun. On the way home today I nearly mowed an old bloke down when he stepped out in front of me as I turned into Llanbadarn road. Seems he didn't expect to see a car on the road, and was somewhat shocked when I came to a screeching halt about a foot away from him. He gave me a dirty look and then went on his way.

Both today and yesterday I got tons done at work. Somehow I feel better about my life when I do well at work - even though it solves none of my problems in any way. Screwed, eh?

Dale came to stay for the weekend, so I've been running round like a headless chicken this weekend. Met him off the train on Friday then we went to Grace's house (his friend's friend) to play some crazy drinking game which had clearly been made as a spur of the moment thing at some point. The general premise was this: There are a pile of cards in the middle of the floor. Each person takes a card when it is their turn. Every card has a meaning. Every meaning results in one or more people drinking varying amounts of alcohol.

On Saturday we drove to Devil's Bridge to see the area and were genuinely surprised to find out that it was shit. I was truly disappointed to find that they expect people to pay to get to the various parts - even in the winter. £1 to see the Punch Bowl, £2 for the "Nature Trail" to the waterfalls. I found that the exit turnstile for the punchbowl was broken and so we were able to get through that for free, but no such luck with the waterfalls. In fact the money slot was jammed so we couldn't have paid even if we'd wanted to.

When we got back we faffed with my computer for a bit, compiling a Direct Connect client. Then it was off to the pub with us again. I'd agreed to meet up with James and we found him in Wetherspoons with some drunk guy I'd not met before. I should have known the evening was going to be a mad one when we passed the two drunk dicks fighting in the street on the way. Went to the bar and got some beer. Found James at a table with another drunk. The first drunk was now immitating Ali G very loudly and very badly. The other drunk was quiet at least...or so I thought.

Suddenly he saw a friend that he was waiting for and so screamed across the patio at the top of his voice. Everyone looked. I could have died. I could have killed James. The third drunk then came and sat down. I noticed that both no. 2 and no. 3 had plasters all over their hands. Suddenly the pair of them were thrusting their hands into their pints, spilling beer everywhere in the process and making a whole lot of noise. Again everyone was looking.

This went on for some time. No. 2 was clearly in agony. Eventually he took his hand out, and No. 3 emptied the remainder of the pint over his head. There was a quiet 5 minute period while they both waited for their hands to warm back up a little, and then they went and sat at their own table. No. 1 took this as an opportunity to start interrogating James on some date that he had been on earlier that day.

Not long after, No. 2 came back to show us that he had removed his plasters and that he was bleeding again. He seemed somewhat proud of this achievement, and to show everyone how proud he was he tried to bleed in No. 1's pint. As you can imagine my pint was very quickly removed from the table and held a suitable distance from No. 2. No. 2 then repeatedly stuck his finger into the remenants of his pint to show us all that he could withstand pain - or at least that's what I assume. The pint was red by the time James had been to the bar, got two plasters and returned. I'd had enough by this point so we legged it. James found us about 5 minutes later and asked if we'd seen No. 1. I pointed in the direction of the door I had seen him disappear through and James disappeared. That was the last we saw of him.

The girls then arrived and we went and shivered outside for a little longer before moving onto the Cambrian. It was Dale's turn to buy the beer and I ordered a Pint of C3PO. Now perhaps I'm getting old or something, but when I order a pint I expect to get my drink in a pint glass filled to the top - because that's how the measurements work. If there is a 1 pint guide line then I expect my drink to reach that line. There was no guideline in this instance, so the glass should have been full. The drink came about three quarters of the way up the glass. This picture shows how the drink arrived. No I'd not drunk any of it. The top inch or so was ice too.

After the Cambrian we wandered down to the Bay. We fought our way in and I found a table. I sat at it for ages until eventually Dale came and found me and said that the girls didn't want a table, they just wanted to dance. FS. So I went and stood with them while they danced. Repeatedly they attempted to make me dance. Repeatedly they failed. I don't understand why people feel that they have to dance when out, and I don't see why people can't understand that I don't like to dance. I stood and looked out over the sea of people dancing in that place. Only one of them had any rhythm, and she was ugly (sorry but it's true). I know I can't dance and I don't like to draw attention to the fact that I can't dance - so I don't. Why don't people understand that? If there's an absolutely amazing song playing and I feel relaxed and comfortable then I may dance, but people trying to force me to dance just makes me feel more awkward.

Anyway the evening ended with a trip to the room a the back of the Bay which was thick with cigarette smoke, we could barely see the other side of the room.

This morning I put Dale on the train to Birmingham New Street and then returned to my flat where I promptly adopted a lazy sod attitude and did nothing.

I shall start this blog again, seeing as Mozilla decided to crash and burn, taking my blog with it in a streak of smoke and flames. Ah well.

Got loads done at work today. The website has changed dramatically overnight for the second time this week. There is now a Welsh language button which will translate the pages into Welsh (where a translation is available) the navigation changes to Welsh (yet maintains its state) and even the logo changes. I was quite pleased with the Welsh logo actually, as it is visually the same as the English one - despite having double the number of letters in it!

After work yesterday I went to Halfords to get an ice-scraper. I left my coat in the car because I knew I would only be a matter of minutes. When I came back there was a dodgy looking bloke stood by my car. As soon as he saw me he promptly walked back to his car and drove off. I inspected my car, no sign of damage, but I'm sure he was either trying to break in, or was thinking about it. Anyway I got his license plate, so if you should happen to see a car with the number-plate N113 0HY then please feel free to stand around it looking like you're about to break in. :)

On the way back from work today I nearly ran over a cat. Stupid animal decided to run across the road in front of me, but then it tried to outrun the car. Considering I was doing 30 Mph it did well.

Dale is visiting tomorrow, I really had better make an attempt to tidy up a little :-/

Just went home for my lunch as I forgot to bring it in with me today. Was munching on some Christmas cake that my parents gave me. My Grandma makes them every year and my parents never eat it, so they gave it to me. Anyway, there I was *much*munch*munch*crunch*. *Crunch*? Carefuly chew some more *munch*grind*crunch*. Hmmm, not good. Much poking around in the gooey contents of my mouth revealed a very small hard round object, which I rinsed under the tap and examined. It was a piece of grit. A piece of grit in my Christmas cake.

WHAT'S THAT DOING IN THERE?