20/11/2006 by david.

Another weekend, the long drive back to Dorset, this time no mechanical problems, just had to combat mother nature. The worst rain I have seen for ages, not so much rain as a monsoon. They closed the Motorway (M3) at the Bagshot, so I had to fiight my way down the old A30, small problem I drive a car, this road was more suited to a boat.  No pictures of this as it was a much as I could do to see the car in front.  Any how, 5 hours later I made it down to Dorset and proved that my cars roof is still water tight.
Saturday & Sunday I was helping my Farther to wire up this house for Lan, TV, DAB and Satellite, this involved sculling around in the loft covered in Glass fiber and feeding cables through tubes.  See the pictures below;

For those Cable Geeks amongst you here is the cable we were using.

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11/11/2006 by david.

Ok this is a rant, complete and utter! I have not decided if the language will be coarse or restrained, at the moment I am still fuming. Last night I was driving down to Dorset for a weekends R&R away from the whole that is Slough (I’m sure if you live there then you may like it, but I like the countryside, trees & a at least half an hours between planes taking off) . It had been a good drive, no major holdups not even in the M3, I had taken little more than 3 hours to get to Blandford, after short break in the car park of a super market it was time to finish the long drive. The sun had completely gone down by now and it was starting to rain, now cars are well equipped for these conditions, even impractical ones like mine.

Now I should explain I am on a fairly major A road (2 lanes 1 each way), while it is twisty and hilly it is a road that is in good condition, this is the last 20 miles of my journey. I envoy driving in the dark so that it no problem. HOWEVER there are some inconsiderate people out there that can not be bothers to take their lights of Main beam (I yanks call them Hi Beams) off, when they encounter a car coming in the other direction, this happened to me. Now another of my pet hates when it comes to driving is lorries that are overloaded, especially when the stuff is just blowing or falling off the top.
So the scene is set, an inconsiderate Driver and some truck driver that could not be bothered to make sure that his load was secure. Dazzled by the headlights of the oncoming car, I did not see a big lump of rubble, in fact more like a small bolder until too late. With the lightening quick reactions I missed the bolder with the front wheels, but must have clipped it with the rear. Now at this time I was doing around 55mph, had my front tyre blown out I would probably a) be writhing this from a hospital bed, and b) looking for a new car.

So by this point I had a Flat Tyre and was pretty pissed off! There I am stuck in the middle of nowhere, sweat FA signal on the phone and almost a flat phone battery. Now normally changing a Tyre would normally be no problem, however remember these points:

It’s dark, pouring with rain and I a have a flat Tyre beside a fast road. There was no way I am changing this wheel. So there is just enough power to call the AA and tell them approximately where I was and then settle down to wait for the chappie in the big yellow van to arrive. All lights on so that he will not miss me.

Around 30 minutes later he turns up and changes the wheel. Now to crown off the whole bloody charade I went to start the car up and the batter was flat, luckily the man from the AA was still there and I was able to get my car started. All I have to do now is get down to the finishing the journey. I go to turn on the Radio nothing just the word “SAFE”. Bugger I now have to hope that the local dealer ship have got the security codes for the Radio and CD stack.

Now to stop all this off I had just 2 months ago I had all 4 Tyre’s replaced.

Thats another £150 down the drain!

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10/11/2006 by david.

Have you ever noticed that time goes faster when your enjoying your self! Also time seems to go faster when your really busy and have deadlines to meet. Well I have been in a rush to get some work done and the time has just flown by.

I work for a large German Hosting company and we have some major new product features coming up for launch and it is my job to get the Online Documentation ready for the customers so that they do not have to contact support, just look at the FAQs.

Yes I am one of those people who create FAQs and online documentation, you know the stuff that people never tend to read
This being so I have not had much time to update the new blog, I have around 2 months worth of photos to go through and upload the best. With luck I may get some time over the weekend to get some more updates, maybe even add a few more posts to the blog.

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6/11/2006 by david.

So it is Monday again! So the long Drive from Bridport to Slough beckons. Normally leaving at 04:30 in the morning is not a problem and will get me in to work before 8, not today though. The weather conspired to make my journey a dangerous and difficult drive, I am used to driving in most conditions and normally even the most inclement weather is not a problem, however today it was fog, not your normal light misty stuff, but a real pea souper. At some stages it was all I could do to drive along at 30mph seeing just 10 - 15 yards ahead. More later.

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4/11/2006 by david.

Did the drive from Slough to Dorset last night, glorious weather, had the sun in my eyes most of the way. Got to Salisbury, where normally there is a fair amount of traffic, however this time, there was no delay. This would normally have been welcome, but this time there was a fantastic sunset behind the spire of the Cathedral, there just was not enough time to get old camera up and take a shot.

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3/11/2006 by david.

Just been reading my mails and spotted a small footnote, 1&1 Internet no give you the possibility of sending Email’s with a 50MB attachment.  This is a 250% increase on the old limit, looks like email is getting better at last!

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1/11/2006 by david.

I have been traveling to Slough now for 8 years, 3 for Uni and 5 for work, but only now have I had to sleep there. Back in October 2005 I bought an apartment in High Wycombe, being told that it “will be ready Early Summer 2006″. Well here we are November 2006 and I am still not in. I don’t want to turn this into a full on rant, but the Builders who will remain nameless have been woefulely incompetent, even though they will have made extra money out of penalty clauses refuse to pay out compensation.
In John Betjeman’s 1937 poem he says ” Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now.” Recently Slough was voted the least tranquil place to live. Times Online Oct 23 2006

Thankfully I can escape to the Country during the weekends even though it takes on average 4 hours to get down to Dorset. So Monday to Thursday I live in the Travelodge Slough, this has one advantage, it is right next door to my office.

To finish off this entry and rant I can just hope that I can move into my new apartment soon!

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1/11/2006 by david.

At the moment I am living a strange half life that involves me living in Slough (Voted the least tranquil place to live) during the week and then Dorset (Tranquility it’s self) for the weekend. The reason for this I am sure I will bore you with at great length some time in the near future.

I went outside for a smoke with Mick (some one I work with) this morning and the Sunlight was so bright it was amazing, however we were both wearing dark coats, so we started to heat up fast. Then I had the bright idea to take my coat off. BIG Mistake, within seconds I was freezing as the icy wind decided to blow.

So the moral here is it may look warm, but that wind chill get to you.

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1/11/2006 by david.

Hi there this is my first blog post!  Weird, I have had a popular website for 5 years now and never bothered to do anything like this before.  I sure you will find the odd interesting entry here, but they may be few and far between.(just kidding).

This will be a forum for me to get my thought’s no matter how obscure or strange out on to the internet and not just rattling  around in my overcrowded head.

Who can say this may track my decent into madness or just be a run of the mill Weblog that no one else will ever read.

So as the ping of destiny times out at the server of despair  I shall get back to work.

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