A Very Long Engagement

Big news today. Read on!

2nd of March, 2004: Well I see people are, in fact, reading my blog :-)

February 29th, 2004, Liz asked me to marry her. It was all a bit of a joke, as I pointed out in my blog at the time. We've never really believed in marriage as it always seemed like nothing more than a commercial way of showing our commitment to one another. However that said I've been feeling for quite some time that it'd be nice to show the world how much we care for each other and Liz obviously felt the same. Today she asked me to marry her. No jokes this time.

You're now free to rush out and start looking for a new hat or posh suit, however the wedding won't be for some time. At least not until I'm in a more financially stable situation. As of yet we've got no real ideas what we're going to do for the wedding but the general idea at the moment seems to be nothing too big. But we'll see. When I get a job I shall have to take Liz to the jewellers and pick out a ring.

The hardest decision I have to make now is: who do I choose to be best man? Two names spring to mind and I'm struggling to decide between them. I'll work something out.

:-o :-) :D

We regret to inform you...

Well the job in Newbury that I was interested in went nowhere. At least they had the decency to inform me which is more than can be said about a great deal of companies. Also, the job just outside Newbury which I've had my hopes pinned on seems to have gone strangely quiet. Odd that, seeing as they're supposedly holding the interviews this week. So I guess that one's out of the window too. To make me feel even better, Mastercard sent me a pleasant letter this morning demanding over £100 in minimum payments.

Well I'm at my wits end. I need a job and I need it last month. I might wander over to Sainsbury's and ask if they need some extra staff... If I can get a decent number of hours stacking shelves then I could earn about £100 a week which would be enough to at least get the bank and the credit card company off my case.

I've just put some fairly melancholy V.A.S.T. on the stereo and there's a big fuckoff thunderstorm going off outside. How apt.

Slow

Liz and I went to see Roads to Koktobel last night. Don't bother going to see this film. It's the single most boring film I've ever had the displeasure to watch. Shame really because I had high hopes for it, it sounded like it would be very interesting, yet it didn't go anywhere. Here's the plot:

Boy and father get on a freight train. They get taken off the train by a rail inspector. They sleep in a shed for the night, then head off towards the town the next day. They offer to fix some bloke's roof. He takes the father's passport. They spend the next two days fixing the roof. On the morning of the third day the father wants more vodka after a heavy drinking session (it's implied that he is alcoholic) and the man has none left for them to drink. He goes to get money to give him, but there is none. He accuses the father of stealing the money and leads him, and the boy, out of the house at gun-point. The father tries to stop him and ends up being shot. They scarper into some woods. That night they reach a female doctor's house, she takes them in and fixes the wound. The father and her end up shagging. The kid runs off. The kid winds up in Koktobel, strangling a seagull. The father finds him. THE END.

The entire film ought to have lasted about half an hour, yet they stretched it out over 2 hours. On the way out I heard a woman say to her husband "that was the most tedious film I've ever seen". I couldn't agree more. It wasn't the fact that the story was slow. It wasn't the lack of dialogue. It was the fact that they took boring shots of the scenery and showed them for up to three minutes at a time. Looking at the same hill for 3 minutes is not much fun. I understand that the director wanted to make the point that this was a long journey, but seriously ... my imagination can fill the blanks. I know it's a long journey, but I don't need to see every inch of the landscape to understand this.

Suffice to say that Liz and I were somewhat disappointed. Especially after watching A Long Engagement which was utterly splendid. Ah well, butter luck next time.

Swimming

In other news, Liz and I went swimming on Monday evening. This is the first real exercise I've done since I finished university and my god I ached yesterday as a result. I'm still aching today too. Still, it's good to know that I've done some work, the aching is a reminder of this fact.

How Annoying

I've been asked to supply examples of my design work and previous sites that I've built, so I thought it would make sense to link to the DIS website but it seems they're having technical issues with their server. I keep getting errors like "The Document Contains No Data" and images keep breaking. It doesn't exactly reflect brilliantly on me ... I've tried to explain that the server was never my responsibility, and after over a year of not being there it's definitely not any more! :)

At least my blog's still okay. Now I just need to find some other examples of my work. It's funny how you can spend years designing websites that you're proud of and then, when it comes to the crunch, you can't find any online that you can show off.

Job Hunting Progress

I got a call yesterday from the contact at the job agency who are dealing with my job application to say that another company has a similar vacancy that she felt I should apply for, as my CV fits their description very well. She just wanted to inform me of the job and check that I would be able to get to the buildings which are just outside of Newbury (seeing as I am prepared to commute as far as Reading, just outside of Newbury is no big deal) and so she said she would be taking my CV over to them later that day.

Just now I had a call from her saying that she'd just been over there and "it's very likely they will want to meet you for an interview". I don't know whether that means I will be offered an interview or whether it means she thinks they liked the look of my CV, or whether I'm simply the only applicant she has on her books who meets their description, or what, but I'm hopeful that I'll get the interview. And the job.

The job sounds interesting: A mixture of web development, programming and Linux administration. I'd be responsible for a web server which, if it goes down, I would be responsible to get it back online pronto before all hell breaks loose. The woman at the agency put forward the fact that I would have quite a lot of responsibility if I were doing this job as if it were a negative aspect to it. Personally I'd rather have responsibility. First, it means you always know where you stand. Second, it makes you feel like a valued member of the team - not just the bloke who picks up the odds and ends that nobody else wants to do.

Ketchup

This is another (ca|ke)tch-up blog as I've not blogged in quite some time. Basically I have decided to scrap my current car and get a new one. It's a painful decision to make as the engine in this car runs brilliantly, but the problem is that the rest of the car keeps falling apart. The long and short of it is: I could get another car for the same money as it would cost to fix everything that is wrong on the current car. So, I shall be scrapping this one and buying a new (as in second hand) car. When I get a job I might even consider getting finance on a newer car.

This weekend was spent in Bath with Liz. Lovely place, well worth a visit. We managed to get around Bath and see all the major tourist attractions in a single day which I thought was quite impressive. We didn't pay to go into the baths though as it cost a tenner and we've heard they're not that great. Plus the queue was huge. We went to the Jane Austen museum which was hilarious. "Jane Austen lived in bath for a few years, and she thought it was shit" was the general idea. We went on a boat which went up the river and got to see the friendly locals. Well, I say friendly... It was a drunk middle-aged woman draped over the wall on a bridge with a can of cider or lager or something, who hurled abuse and flicked the V's at us etc. Extremely friendly. There's much more to write on Bath but I shall refrain as this blog is already getting too long.

Job-Hunting Progress

Today I visited the agency dealing with the job I'm applying for. Didn't learn much that I didn't already know, but signed up fully with the agency on the off-chance that they can find something else that's suitable for me to apply to. CVs are being sent to the company tomorrow and interviews will be taking place at some point next week, probably monday or tuesday. That's assuming I get an interview.

*sigh*

Blimey that was fast

I just applied for a job, and half an hour later I got a call from the agency dealing with it to confirm my details and to get a better idea of who I am. Then she described the company the application will actually be going to. They're a small company based in Newbury who do web technologies for all kinds of people. It sounded quite a lot like the stuff I was doing with the Open Learning Unit during my year out. The group is a small close-knit team and so they want the woman at the agency (who worked with them for a year) to meet with each of the applicants before-hand to make sure they're the right sort of person for the job.

I'm not getting my hopes up or counting my chickens before they hatch (this is, after-all, the first job I have applied for so far) but it does sound like exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. I'd much rather work with a small group of people than a big faceless corporation. Plus it's in Newbury, so there won't be any commuting (and all the related costs and stress that comes with it) required.

Here's hoping...

Damn This Hayfever

I've been suffering with hayfever for a few days now. On Saturday Liz and I went to Boots to get some hayfever tablets. Earlier that day I had dug a spare duvet out from under the bed and put it in a duvet case for Ricey. I'd then spent a good 5 minutes in the bathroom constantly sneezing and blowing my nose. It even felt as though my asthma had come back, a sensation I've not had for 18 years.

The Neverending Laundry

The washing machine has been quite busy since I got back as I had loads of laundry. It seems like every time I take a load out of the washing machine some more appears from somewhere and so the pile never goes down. I idly commented on this to Liz, describing it as "the neverending laundry" and she cracked me up "oh the poor, they crack me up!" by adding "the boring sequel".

Now I keep getting visions of an epic film, all about a young boy's aspirations to finally finish the laundry.

Busy Busy Busy

I am now back in Newbury, and pretty much for good now. All being well my next trip to Aberystwyth will be for graduation in July. As stated in my last blog, the exhaust fell off my car when I got to Aberystwyth and because of the way it died, there was no way of bodging it back on. Even the blokes in Kwik Fit were powerless to do anything about it (other than replace it) and - as I only had £10 on me at the time - I had to drive back to Newbury in the tractormobile again.

It's starting to sink in that I have left and no longer live there, but it's still not there. Every so often I find myself thinking that I'll need to get on with some work when I get back to Aber.

Moving in has been hard work. Because the flat isn't very big, we have both had to be quite brutal in getting rid of things we don't need. I've given away two computers, a monitor, a printer, a TV, VCR, and a portable TV/Radio/CD player. Then when I came to move my stuff into the kitchen I realised the we didn't need 6 big plates, 7 small plates, 6 bowls and 4 crappy little bowls that are too small to use for anything. So I ended up taking loads of kitchen stuff to the charity shops along with a load of clothes that Liz was getting rid of. I stuffed the whole lot in a box and then trudged through the rain to the shop. I'm amazed my arms didn't drop off in the process - it was a heavy box.

Yesterday Ricey appeared and we went to the pub for a beer or 6. I was somewhat chuffed that I'd still not been IDed since my Birthday. That is, I was chuffed right up until one of the bar staff at the Canal Bar marched over to our table and IDed me. Bah. Never mind. A little later on we tried to go to a late bar and they IDed Liz! Liz was carrying her shiny new Citizen's Card which is the standard photo ID now and they refused to accept it. What the fuck? They said they only accept driver's licenses and passports. Fucksakes. So we had to go home in the end where we watched Spiderman II, and where I promptly fell asleep.

ARGH

I've just spent an hour under my car trying to reassemble the exhaust which has fallen apart again. Don't believe the crap they write on exhaust repair kits. They are not easy, they are not quick. I've taken a chunk out of a knuckle, got rust in my eye, and my hands ache like hell. After all this, I started the engine to dry the paste that's supposed to hold the whole thing together - as the instructions specified - and the whole thing fell apart again.

Fuck it. Just fucking fuck it. I've had it up to my eyeballs with the whole fucking car. It needs a new mid-section exhaust, a new clutch, a new engine mount, the driver's side window is screwed, the doors never close properly, the stereo system is so fucked that I can't even begin to explain, the bodywork is a mess after my crash last year and I'm generally just sick of it.

I could buy a new car (as in second-hand) for the amount of money it's going to cost to repair all of this crap so I think it's time to just scrap the bastard and get a newer car that doesn't need every last part replacing.

Tomorrow I am going to have to do the trip to Newbury with the exhaust hanging off. Again. As if it wasn't enough fun the first time.

Now I'm going to go and have a bath to try and calm down, I'm so pissed off with everything.