Beyond all else there is Cricket

Tuesday 28th July:
Usual day at work, nothing much happened. Ineresting article read today was about how and where the current western concept of Time and Date came to be.
Off to see Public Enemies at the theatre. Not a bad movie, some interesting camera work in the whole thing, although it did kinda vary a bit too much in regards to the different types of camera work and filming done. Gave a bit of a haphazard feel to the whole movie, but a good movie nonetheless.

Wednesday 29th July:
What can I say other than another day at work. It's still raining here in Birmingham - welcome to a typical English summer as I know it!!!
Ohwell at least I got some warmth and sun down in France.
Picked up my ticket for my day at the Cricket on Saturday (3rd day of the 3rd Test - should be good as long as it isn't raining).
But I digress, it's a Wednesday and nothing ever really happens on a Wednesday - which is good coz it gives me a chance to just relax.

Thursday 30th July:

Some French Leasons

Tuesday 21st July:
Nothing unusual today other than work and being a Tuesday it was movie night. Off to see The Hangover: (verdict to be added later)
On a lighter side the interesting article that caught my eye to day was about the up and coming wedding of Kelly to Kelly in American who met on facebook. Not sure how that will pan out especially when explaining to people yes my name is Kelly Hildebrandt and yes my husbands name is Kelly Hildebrandt. I suppose one up side for her is that fact that she doesn't have to think about changing her last name to his and going through the who episode of that as she just needs to put a Mrs in front now instead of Miss/Ms.

Wednesday 22nd July:
For those who like a bit of history, this is an article about the new The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary
As for work, well it was another day at work is all I can say about it really. Nothing else much happened there other than the usual - although I still have yet to work the stupid Access programming out and have decided to scale back my efforts to a much more simple form and query.
As a side note I have been getting to know one of the Big Issue vendors who I generally see about 3 or 4 times a week on my walk home through the city (I see a few of them here and there but generally just but the magazine from one vendor). She is a girl from Romania with a couple of young children who is selling the issue to fund and look after her girls. It's always a pleasure to see her and we have been having generally small chats on most days that I walk past. Today's was a bit longer and as we got chatting about her kids etc. Not much else to say about it really, but I figure it lightens and breaks up the day for her a bit and I get a pleasure out of chatting with her aswell. Highly recommend the magazine if you ever get a chance to buy one. The vendors get half the price of the magazine for themselves and they always go through screening before being allowed to sell the magazine.

Thursday 23rd July:
More work today, although at least it is only half a day. Off in the afternoon to register at a doctors, pay my rent for the 4 weeks and then catch my plane to Marseilles. Flight was uneventful as was the trip into Marseilles. The best part of it was the fact that you have to coming in close to the big lake that is right next to the airport. Marseilles being in the south of France is also in the middle of it's summer and so the nights are about 21C and 30-34C days - perfect weather really (except the over night temps).
Got to the Hostel eventually (got a little semi-lost) or should I say I went in the completely different route to those provided on the directions. I got chatting to Sam the owner as well as an Australian girl who'd been there for a bout a week or so, and an English fella who'd been there just a few day's less. Went out with them for a couple of beers which was fun since none of us spoken any French beyond the basics - but the good thing about Marseilles as I found out is that they are quite happy to speak English (if they know it) if note then trying to get to understand each other in a different way.

Friday 24th July:
Got up semi-early (being around 9am) and headed out to see the sites of this Southern Port City (being a port city it has a reasonable amount of character and sordid history).
I wanderered down to the old port district (the hub of the city), stopped off to get some croissant's for breakfast then walked around the old town district. Walked around the Fort Saint-Jean - the other thing I noticed while there is that event where there are no beaches and only rocky out crops near the water's edge the French inhabitants and (I presume a few french tourists) will use them and go for a swim or sunbath.
From there I walked up to and viewed the Cathedral as well as a few other places and back streets of the old town. From there I walked back towards the Old Port and caught the Petite Train for a tour of the coast road and a ride up to the Notre-Dame De La Grade. There was a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea and the city houses, appartments and other assorted buildings, on the way up to the Notre-Dame.
There was a spectacular view from the top of the hill and here I left the Petite Train and walked back down the hill towards the Old Port. I stopped off again for some lunch (a quiche and strawberry tarte) before walking some more around the city and then taking a 1hr boat trip out to the local islands some of the coast and back again.
From there I headed back to the hostel where I met up with Gary (English fella) and Amanda (Australian girl) and headed out for some dinner at one of the local restaurants and then a bottle of wine. We then walked back to the hostel for Amada to get her backs and helped her over to the train station for her train back to Germany.
After that Gary and I went for a couple more beers down by the old port.

Saturday 25th July:
Up mid morning then Gary and I decided to grab a train and go out to Aix-En-Provance which is a nice little quaint town which had a lot of history to it and was nice to walk around in for a few hours, and noticable cooler than Marseille (albeit not that much cooler but cool enough).
It was a nice day out and away from Marseilles and we got to see some of the other regions of France aswell as a few decent buskers plying their trade.
Back into Marseilles in the afternoon and then we met up with a couple of other English people who'd just booked into the hostel. Went out for dinner at the old port (had mussles and fries for dinner) then we went looking for somewhere to dance but stumbled upon the red light district and quickly escaped to find a couple of other places for a drink or two.

Sunday 26th July:
Slept in a bit and only got up around 10. Out for breakfast with Gary, then I headed down to the old port to book passage on a tour boat to see the Calanques from Marseille to Cassis and back.
It was a great way to spend 3 hours especially since I had a prime spot at hte front of the boat for the whole trip along the coast to Cassis and back.
After the trip I headed back to the hostel to relax for a bit before heading out for dinner and then catch my bus back to the airport.
Went out with Gary again, as well as a couple of Aussies who where in Marseille for a day or two. Finally found a place to eat dinner (pizza again) and then as it was getting to about 8.45 I remember I had to go and grab my bus so I ate, said a quick good bye, paid and ran up to the train/bus station to book the bus and get to the airport - unfortuantely I just missed one bus and so had to wait just under 20 minutes for the next bus to the airport.
Luckily for me the bus only left 5 minutes late but only took 20 minutes to get to the airport so I arrived 10 minutes before the gates closed - the closest plane catch for me.
The plane ride was uneventful and arrived on time as usual for RyanAir (even though it left late) which is annoying because if they are on time you get the dodgy 'Congratulations' music and speach - sooo annoying.
Anyway just caught the second to last bus home (otherwise would have been on the train) and walked through the city at midnight to get home by just before 12.30.
Off to bed and that was the end of my nice relaxing and heat filled weekend in France (which felt like a holiday from the time I stepped out of the Marseilles bus/train station to when I left).

Monday 27th July:
Back to work today (and unfortunately up at the usual time which meant I didn't get a huge amount of sleep because of my late arrival.
Not much to say about work, jus the usual day there, then food shopping as Asda on the way home (won't bother going there much as it's about the same price as Tesco except for a few items).

A Week of rain and Weekend in London

Tuesday 14th July:
More work, and still trying to figure out this stupid DB in Access, occasionally get a small win, but still can get any of it to some together and work well for me. Oh well the lovely frustrations of coding - potentially the reason while I never went on with it after studying it at uni!
Got home then went off to see Bruno - the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie. Please I implore you do NOT spend your money on the movie, wait for it to hit either the weekly movie shelf or come to TV. The beginning held a lot of promise, but it fell away after that and became so disjointed it was painful to watch, there were parts in there that were funny, but overall it was a long 1hr 22min, and I'm glad that's all it went for. I thought firstly that it was a short film, and there's a reason for it being one.

Wednesday 15th July:
More work and frustration on the DB.
Got a bit of a lift this morning from the Quote of the day on the BBC website:

"In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, then the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself." J KRISHNAMURTI You Are The World

Quite fitting really when you think about it. If you don't go out to achieve it, it won't come to you basically.
Well that is pretty much it for the day, nothing overly exciting happened.

Thursday 16th July:
More work, and our monthly team meeting - oh they are great and glorious times.
Nothing much happened at work nor on the way home - albeit they were filming something at the Bullring today - don't know what, and really not to fused about it either.
On a different note it was Soccer/football night again tonight - got a couple of goals in as well which was nice.
For an interesting article that I was reading today about the abandoned tube stations see here.

Friday 17th July:
Well another day at work, although the day started off well with the news that Hanna Erika - my new Niece was born in the morning - great way to start the day off.
From there work was the usual, although really didn't want to be there at all today, and then I started to get annoyed with the Cricket and Australia perchant for letting a game which they should easily draw because of rain, semi go down the drain because they play stupid stupid shots - AAARRrggghhhh. But these are the things of cricket.
For dinner I went out to a new restaurant that has recently opened up near me - the Flaming Dragon. Not too bad a place although since it is currently in pre-official opening I gave a bit of criticism on how they could improve.
Now all I am waiting for is Saturday and my weekend in London.

Saturday 18th July:
Slept in this morning - got up just after 10ish, then mum and dad called, so I ended up chatting with them for a while before leaving to catch the train into London.
Got to London and found the hostel I was staying at - Clink - not a bad place, a little out of the way but not that far out.
Once I got my bed setup and organised I got my stuff together and headed towards the Palace theatre where I was going to see the Priscilla musical. Stop ed a pub next to the theatre to grab a pint and then dinner aswell while I waited for the box office to open up and me to grab my ticket that was waiting for me there.
Anyway got into the theatre to find that I was 3 rows from the back and right on the end of the row next to the wall - I came all the way from Birmingham to get almost the worst seat in the house - not really what I was expecting.
Anyway I was hoping to be able to move as there seems to be a lot of spare seats and I was hoping that there would still be at the start of the show. Unfortunately it was packed out and I had to end up watching the show from my seat - one advantage of the seat was that I could stand up next to the wall and get a better view of it.
Anyway I digress, the show was brilliant and highly entertaining, although unfortunately Jason Donovan wasn't in it and was obviously having a day off - he is suppose to play the leading character.

After the show I made my way back to the hostel where they have a pub on the lower level - the hostel is housed in an old court house building. I was eventually able to grab a couple of beers from the bar and sat down to drink them. Nearing the end of my second beer a single girl rocked up and so we got chatting. She was from Brasil but living and studying in Lisbon, Portugal.

Sunday 19th July:
Slept really badly during the night and constantly woke up, I was kinda sleeping in an odd position without much help from the bedding or the smallish bed, as well as the room being fairly warm aswell - not a great combination.
Anyway eventually got up in the morning, had a shower and breakfast then checked out. Met up with Mariana (Brasilian girl from the previous night), and we were going to go and join up with the free London walking tour, unfortunately it started to heaving pour down with rain and so we decided not to join up with the tour, instead I caught the train back to Marylebone to catch the train back to Birmingham, and Mariana decided to go and see a couple of museums.
Back in Birmingham it ws raining again on my walk from the train station home, where I spent the rest of the day just relaxing and doing nothing as I felt like doing, as well as getting some hope up that Australia may yet still win this current test, or at least give England a run fr their money.

Monday 20th July:
Another day at work like every other day except for the fact that it was the final day and Lords and with Australia in a semi decent position to potentially make history and win the 2nd Ashes test on a record chash, and honestly had Haddin and Clarke or Johnson still been there at lunch with just having lost one wicket in the morning it would have almost certainly been an Aussie win, unfortunately they didn't win, but these things happen and they ultimately lost the test in the first innings when they gave their wickets away on mostly hook shots.
Beyond that it was a very normal day and ending to the day as well.

Tuesday 7th July - Monday 13th July

Tuesday 7th July:
At work today I have been fiddling around with my new DB that I am developing. The first task was to get what I had done in excel - the initial workings that allowed me to see the correct result in a format and program I know how to use - imported and the excel formulas correctly coded into access.
Had a bit of a weird experience today at work where my vision went a bit cloudy for about 45 minutes or so. It eventually cleared up but had a headache develop around an hour later.
Went to the optometrists to see if they had any clues, and they subsequently booked me in for an check up on Wednesday.

Tonight I have decided to go and see the movie Year One - I love living near the cinema (5 min walk down the street)and even more so cheap arse Tuesday.

Wednesday 8th July:
Well I finally got the Access DB up and running and now fiddling around with the reports section trying to get that to work. So far it's not doing what I want it to do and I have a few minor issues in regards to the incorrect date order etc, but I'm determined to sort those out and try figure out how to get around it. The Internet is getting a good workout by me looking up how to do different things with Access.
Had my appointment with the optometrists tonight and did the usual eye exams as well as getting a digital photo taken of the back of both of my eyes which is kinda weird.
Anyway the most likely reason for my vision issue on Tuesday was suggested to be a migraine/the onset of one anyway - classic symptom apparently.
Anyway got told I needed an upgrade to my lenses which wasn't a massive surprise to me, but will have to wait a month or so until I have a bit more loose cash in the bank. Holiday booking is currently trying up my credit card a bit too much at the moment. But at least this will mean the next little while or the major bits at least are booked and paid for.
Ashes start today!!!

Thursday 9th July:
Work - finally got the date issue sorted out, had to produce a new field in the main query to reference and sort the month properly which then had to be referenced in the report to sort the date order correctly.
Next major issue is organising the report so that you can have it come back with a selection of line items instead of them all.
Continuation of the first Test - I'm watching it via the cricinfo website - meaning I'd doing a bit of reading as well as watching the score increase.
My old neightbour goes out on Thursday's and plays indoor soccer and before I left my last place invited me out to play.
Today was my first week and game, and while it's extremely fast paced, I will be going back again to play - always prefered to play soccer/football than watch it.
Booked myself a weekender in London for the 18th-91th July. Going to see Priscilla - Queen of the Desert with Jason Donovan in.

Friday 10th July:
Not much to say about today really.
Work was work, although my current chanllenge at work with me for and report that I am try to produce and get to work is causing a few headaches. Off to get a VBA/Access book for some light weekend study to get my head back into gear for what I use to study 8 years ago.
On the way home I got to catch a RedBull moto-cross display in the city centre - saw them setting it up in the morning, and I guess was just lucky as they were just about to start it as I got of the bus and was walking past it. Pretty cool I have to tell you, and yes I got some photo's and video of it on my phone which I will upload at some stage.
Anyway the Ashes continue which is nice and hopefully I'll be able to watch a bit of them tomorrow (Saturday) and it doesn't rain all day long.
Dined out tonight, just downstiars at one of the pub's which operate just outside my window and I can look into whenever I look out my window. Wasn't bad, but usual uality and quantity I've come to expect from a Weatherspoons chain pub, over all cheap and decent enought for dinner. That's been pretty much it for the day.
Booked myself another weekend away for the August long weekend. Off to Dussledorf/or near by for a few days. Cheap flight, just have to organise accomodation and how to get from the airport to Dussledoft 89km away when the train only come's once and hour and bus stops just after I am suppose to arrive. Oh well can organise that closer to the time.

Saturday 11th July:
Saturday the bastion of the 9-5'er. Well that's what it still feels like after 4 weeks at work, and yes I have been there a month already - kinda gone quickly in some senses and slow in others.
Not much to say about Saturday other than watched a bit of Cricket and that was pretty much it for the day.

Sunday 12th July:
Again not a lot to tell other than the fact that I did a bit of food shopping mid afternoon after sitting down to watch the first session of the final day of the 1st test. Watched the second session in the afternoon and then went home to listen to it on the net, mightily glad I did, as I would have been hammering the Aussies had I bothered to stay at the pub to watch it - on a side note I want to say Congrats to Mark Webber for his first GP win - not that he'll ever read this, but at lease I got to see some of the race inbetween watch the cricket aswell.

Monday 13th July:
Another fairly unproductive day at work, still trying to figure this stupid annoying DB out that I am doing. To top it all off the day started on a bad not with me remembering at the last minute before the bus arrived that I needed a new bus pass - so off I quickly walked to get a new monthly pass - luckily for me the bus is uaually late to my stop and it kept up the records today.
Beyond that the aircon at work decided to hack it in again, but at least the aircon guys are out now trying to get it to work, but it means another couple of days of 25-30 odd degree heat in the office with very little air movement, and we are not allowed to open the windows very wide in case we damage the blinds (which are obviously more important than workers health and welfare).
Now on a lighter note I read today about how the days of the week were created and the 7 day week aswell.

The Beginning, the Middle and the End

Tuesday 30th June:
As expected the day was a day at work, and my first month end with Lloyds TSB Autolease (from here on known as either autolease or my/the job). Nothing overly exciting but you never know I may just stay here for the next 6 months to finish my legally allowable working time in England rather than heading up to Edinburgh as first planned, but we will wait and see. Also went to see the new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen tonight.

Wednesday 1st July:
Work, and the start of the month end and learning what I will have to do in the future for a few months - also ended up chatting to Greg over Skype which was really good, as it's been a while since that has happened.

Thursday 2nd July:
Work, and the first of a couple of meeting that I am going to this week and month end to understand and get an idea of what people do and the job is about a bit more - trust me it's not that interesting and not an avenue that I will be aiming to follow when I leave the contact, but I should at least learn something here. In the evening I had an unexpected late evening Skype call from mum and dad which was nice.

Friday 3rd July:
Started like every other day of mainly just work, and again the second of the two meeting for me for this month end, which luckily I have not had to contribute anthing to.
However that is where normality of the day ended, as when I got home after a long day at work and a long week as such I arrived at my front door to find an Abandonment notice on it and the locks changed. The wholely unfortunately thing about it was that while it said to contact the local key holder, they didn't give any detail as to who this mysterious person was. Further to the matter when I tried to get in contact with the company/agency on the notice there was no one there to answer the call and no out-of-hors phone number provided.
The further frustrating and annoying thing was that I was also unable to get in contact with my new landlord to try and either a. find out what was going on, or b. get it sorted and get into my appartment. Needless to say I was not going to have a great night after that. About 5 mins after I got home to find this unfortunately turn of events, my new housemate also arrived home to find this and understandable was also a little lost about the whole situation.
In the end I gave a couple of friends a call and ended up around at one of their places for the night where they kindly loaned me their couch to sleep on. Having said this we at least got to met the guy who lives directly opposite us who then gave me a lift to Shaun's (friend I use to work with) place - only about a 5 min drive away that took about 10 because we got lost trying to find the place.
Evening spent with Shaun and his girlfried was good as we watched the West Indies v Indian one-dayer.

Saturday 4th July:
Today started terribly, as again I was unable to get hold of either my landlord or the company that arranged for my locks to be changed. As a result I missed my bus going down to Bristol for the day (which I was looking forward to) - as I really needed to get the lock and door sorted. Due to not being able to get in contact with anyone and my battery dying very quickly (5% battery life by the time I left Shaun's) I decided to instead head into the city and visit flight centre to look at trying to find flights for my trip to Morroco that I have been planning for the last 1 1/2 weeks or so.
Anyway after about an hour or so with the nice lovely travel agent at flight centre uk (Bull Ring, Birmingham branch), I left having planned and booked and partially paid for my 5 day trek/tour with onthegotours - Camel-souks-kasbahs (with a 20 pound discount, my flights - flying with Royal Air Maroc and a yearly short-trips travel insurance policy to cover it all and future trips.
Depart:
Saturday 26 September - AT9815 - depart Gatwick 1950, arrive Tangier 2140 - (all airport transfer included)
Return:
Saturday 10 October - AT9814 - depart Tangier 1510, arrive Gatwick 1900
While I was at flight centre my landlord called me to find out what was going on and had happened, of which I thus had to explain what had happened. Initially I was going to have to organise for a locksmiths to come and change the lock, however it was decided that he would make his way over and get it sorted.
So by mid-afternoon and my holiday planning and booking therapy I was eventually able to get back into my apartment. Needless to say my front door lock and now been changed twice in 2 days (so 3 different keys and locks in 2 days have been fitted to my door).
I spent the rest of the day catching up on my emails, and usually web happenings as well as having a shower and cooking my marinated lamb steaks that I was going to have on Friday to much delight, and then in the evening knowing it was a clubbing night for Broad Street, up late writing this and playing a couple of free poker tourny's online before heading to bed later once the clubbing has finished for the night - 2am at the moment.

Sunday 5th July:
Church in the morning, followed by a hair cut which meant me sitting there for about 1.5hrs and in the chair for 1/2 hr.
I followed this by shopping at Next for 3 new shirts, 3 ties and a new pair of pants for work.

Monday 6th July:
Work, and a bit of free poker practice online. Nothing overly exciting happened at work, but I have started to build the main database for the main project I was given at work to accomplish that has to be mostly finished by the end of the month (fairly doable really). Looks like that DB training that I did at Uni may come in handy although it has been 8 years since I last properly touched a DB and did work on it - including writing formulas/code.