I'm going friends only.



I've recently been friended by a couple of people weirdos. As LJ doesn't allow me to reject their friendship or block their access to me this is the  only way to do it .






     FRIENDS ONLY


If you wish to read my journal drop me a PM letting me know something about you. Friends can read each others' journals. If I can't read yours we aren't going to be friends.

Today started badly as I got up late, got stuck in a traffic jam and travelled 12 miles in 50 minutes when I needed to be at a site on time or the whole day would be thrown out, not just for me , but the people on the site too. Luckily I made it there on time. The day ended with an unexpected Christmas gift from one colleague ; mmm pudding wine :) and a very silly Christmas card through the post from another..

1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing and even if it's just a one-line post.
2. Do this everyday for a week without fail. ( if you'd like to join in)


Christmas present buying and nearly everything has been bought from the comfort of this PC.

Today was the last gift - a Wii game for Niece no4 and I got it at the cheapest site with an extra 10% discount, and no postage. 

£2.47 may be small , but as the slogan goes( from a supermarket that wanted considerably  more) -  "every little helps"!


PS The music; I'd sort of forgotten how clever Billy Bragg's writing is until this quiet little epic came up on shuffle.

1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing and even if it's just a one-line post.
2. Do this everyday for a week without fail. ( if you'd like to join in)


Monday 8th I attended a workshop on home-working in London. My team has been working from home for over 6 years now , so we are often asked to "share our experiences " with others who may be considering it.

There were three IT chaps there I'd worked with over the last 10 years on one project or another and we had a giggle about web cam testing. My manager has put the  team up for a pilot study.  Do I put on the "slap" and a suit or just fix a photo of me looking presentable in front of the camera.

Then I was tapped on the shoulder and another colleague I haven't seen in months said hello. It's surprising how happy you feel when someone else seems pleased to see you.

I've been tagged by elhamisabel 

If you've got  a Flickr account go to the 6th page and post the 6th image on that page here and tag 6 people.
So I'm tagging semioticghosts ,  novemberbug , swanofkennet , miketroll , newkaligula, and caterinaanna , if they want to play, too and haven't already been caught.



It's the Sanger Institute's Genome campus south of Cambridge.
I took this in February on a very cold, foggy day. I'd had an 8.00am meeting near Saffron Walden on a site in a secluded valley. Sufficiently secluded for the temperature to be -5degrees when the surrounding villages were just above freezing. Due to the fog I missed my turn onto the A road and ended up weaving my way through the villages in the general direction of Cambridge and unexpectedly came upon this - the home of the Human Genome Project.

Nudged by newkaligula here's another set. All shot from a rooftop car park two weeks ago.
In other words I can take the pics  it's doing the uploading I'm slow at!

4. King's



5.  Lab rats



6. Blocks



7. Lab



8. Escape

 


9. White lines




</lj>

If you are a driver you really should take it.

www.dothetest.co.uk/

I told you I'd be slow at this!


#1








#2





#3




As LJ was having a hissy fit and rejecting the Flickr links for your edification and delight larger images can be found here.

Got you going didn't I ? The ship not Her Maj.

The QE2 leaves Southampton this evening on her final voyage to become a floating hotel in Dubai. There was some embarrassment today when she ran aground in the Solent on the way into Southampton Harbour.

Old footage is being shown on the news of the Queen naming the ship and I flashed back to sitting in a junior school classroom aged 10, and the school TV ( just the 1) being wheeled in for us all to watch the launch. I don't recall any excitement, apart from the fact that we got to watch the TV and it wasn't a "school's programme", but according to the BBC this morning it was broadcast live, unusually, because the construction of the liner was so important to British industry. We don't do that anymore, industry , that is,  Thank you Mrs Thatcher.

As miketroll  is off cruising at the moment I wonder if he's considering emulating this lady who will now be looking for another floating home. I reckon she's spent over half a million pounds to date on her luxury retirement home.

Underneath all the excitement of an African-American being elected as US President America continues to be a conservative country. After all 48m people DIDN'T vote for Obama. The expectation is that, at best, President Obama will be a centrist. Funny that he was being castigated as a socialist!

The influence of church over state in the US astounds me, but now, it really angers me, because the religious right thought up Proposition 8 for California, and they have won, by a similar percentage to Obama's victory. I wonder how many people voted YES to Obama and NO to equal rights fro gay people?

So if you are gay, and got married in California in the last 4 months then the change that will be coming  will be a backward step and your marriage will be null and void. If your relationship has lasted 10, 20 , 30 or more years it will count for nothing in the eyes of the law. Similar propositions have been successful in other states as the churches and self-styled moral guardians gang up to ensure that gay citizens are second-class citizens.

Home of the Brave, my a*se!

Devotees of the final series of the West Wing knew the result of the US Election in May 2006, when the last episode was broadcast on American TV and the Hispanic character based on Barack Obama won the election against an elderly, maverick, decent Republican.

The story's appeared in many newspapers but here's the Guardian's version


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/21/barackobama.uselections2008

OK, so the cost of the crash world-wide is £2.8 trillion. These numbers only make sense to physicists and economists, so the Guardian has helpfully converted it to "buying 13,000 lattes for each person in the UK", amongst other examples.

Updated to say that the BBC's voice of doom ( Robert Peston)  was putting this at £5trillion at lunchtime  and not a mention of infinite improbability factors! 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/28/economics-credit-crunch-bank-england

You could read the story above...( Doom)

OR

You could watch this: ( Cheery)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/oct/27/australia-dog-fire-rescue

It brought a tear to my jaded eye.

As seen on Madame U's LJ.

Your result for The Famous (and Not So Famous) Art Quiz...

Art History Major

Take The Famous (and Not So Famous) Art Quiz at HelloQuizzy

In the spirit of a "balanced" view I took both quizzes.

My conservative persona is derived from what I found the least offensive answers to the questions, which was a tad difficult at times.

Why "I'm getting old" ?

Because I've stopped being a bleeding-heart liberal and am less inclined to see Government waste money on the idle. Or maybe that's because when I was younger it was hard to live on " the dole".Now it seems for many working for a living brings in less than sitting on your fat backside in front of cable/satellite TV (when you aren't popping out the progeny of you and the latest sperm-donor to cross your threshold).

On Wednesday I was advised that the pic they'd short-listed for the Schmap of Bristol had made it. Yesterday, coincidentally, I revisited the location as it 's on the route from the station to our Bristol office.

http://tinyurl.com/6nb3lm


It's not your normal take on St Mary Redcliffe Church!



All thanks to croc_sandwich's photo challenge on the theme of "Rock On"

Courtesy of the Guardian



More here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/aug/12/bushlol?picture=336501045

( the music was the first track when I switched on ipod shuffle- how did it know to do that?)

My sister rang this evening to tell me they are off on holiday for tomorrow and to advise me of arrangements for the aged P(mother has Alzheimer's and must take her pill every day).

After nattering about flights, airports and kids who don't download DVDs to their iPod to the night before she said that No1 niece had announced she wants to go on holiday with her mates next year.

My immediate response was "No, you can't let her!"

No 1 niece turns 16 at the end of August, so next year she'll still be a skinny, waif-like 16 year old with a load of well-endowed 17 year oldfriends who'd pass for a lot older.( I've seen the Prom photos)

On reflection, my reaction was based totally on what I expected them to be doing - holiday in the Med ( Costas - anywhere cheap), loads of lying by a pool and much alcohol ( probably). I've no idea what the reality might be. My sister had pointed out  to said niece that a bunch of Lower 6th students would be unlikely to afford the 4 star hotels she's used to, so she''ll believe it when she sees it.

She also reminded me of my mis-adventures as a 17 year old and the word "hypocrite" came up.
In my defence I would say that I only went away for weekends, in the UK, and we tended to stay with friends of our parents  for one night ( drawing a veil over the other night spent outside music festival venues waiting for the gates to open). But it all seems so innocent now in a world of binge drinking and date-rape.

Nevertheless, it's official - I've become my mother.

I'm taking a break letting my brain shuffle the cards of my latest report and spit out something meaningful, probably in half an hour or so. This meme is doing the rounds and a fellow LJer once commented that I don't say much about ME , so here is a little.

1. Were you named after anyone?
My mother's mother is in there, Elizabeth, and my second name, Anne, may be for my father's aunt or may not.

2. When was the last time you cried?
Watching a West Wing DVD. The older I get the more cheap sentiment gets to me.

3. Do you like your handwriting?
I liked it when I was a teenager and it had some form. Years of taking notes in interviews has reduced it to a hideous scrawl.

4. What is your favourite lunch meat?
Hand-carved organic roast ham.

5. Do you have kids?
No.

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you?
Yes, I'm a good friend, although I'm evil when really crossed.

7. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Not to people's faces.

8. Do you still have your tonsils?
Yes. A doctor decreed when I was a child that my attacks of tonsilitis were so bad that I needed my tonsils to prevent the infection causing greater trouble elsewhere.

9. Would you bungee jump?
No my spine's in a bad enough state already.

10. What is your favourite cereal?
Nut clusters.

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
Only if my shoes have laces.

12. Do you think you are strong?
I used to be physically strong, now I'm not and i don't like it. Emotionally I can be pretty strong, but eventually I'll crack.

13. What is your favourite ice cream?
Good rum and raisin.

14. What is the first thing you notice about people?
General demeanour : it'll help me decide how to get answers from clients

15. Red or pink?
Pink

16. What is your least favourite thing about yourself?
I want people to like me, it's an insecurity I could do without.

17. Who do you miss the most?
My friend Mary who died two years ago. I often think " I wonder what Mary would think of that"

18. Do you want everyone to send this back to you?
I'm probably on the end of this anyway.

19. What colour pants and shoes are you wearing?
Cream and black cotton trousers and white Birkenstocks

20.What was the last thing you ate?
A smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich.

21. What are you listening to right now?
The hum of the PC and the sound of birds outside the window.

22. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
Red

23. Favourite smells?
The sea, wild honeysuckle and clematis.

24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
The boss

25. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Yes

26. Favourite sport to watch?
Tennis & football.

27. Hair colour?
Mouse,  blond, orange and grey.

28. Eye colour?
Passport says blue. Actually a slatey blue with a lot of yellow around the iris.

29. Do you wear contacts?
I've worn hard lenses since I was 19 and switched to gas permeables about 15 years ago

30. Favourite food?
I'll eat most things, but love cheese.

31. Scary movies or happy endings?
Neither - a good story is what I want.

32. Last movie you watched?
Good night and Good Luck

33. What colour shirt are you wearing?
Pale yellow

34. Summer or winter?
I like both, but as I remember them as a child, hot sunny summers and snowy winters.

35. Hugs or kisses?
Both.

36. Favourite dessert?
At the moment I 'm majoring on panacotta with berries.

37. Most likely to respond?
No idea

38. Least likely to respond?
Those who already have

39. What book are you reading right now?
Sarah Waters "The Night Watch"

40. What is on your mousepad?
"The future is known" and a bright sunrise. It's an ad for financial software.

41. What did you watch on TV last night?
"Criminal Justice" a week long drama about the UK justice system.

42. Favourite sound?
The sea.

43. Rolling Stones or Beatles?
The answers in the title of this entry, but I do know the words to most Beatles' songs

44. What is the furthest you've been from home?
Thailand

45. Do you have a special talent?
No can't sing, can't dance, can't act a bit

46. Where were you born?
Coventry, UK

47. Whose answers are you looking forward to reading?
Everyone's are interesting