Day's Out

Family fun day started with a meal in Rudheath at the Broken Cross as recomended by Tracy. Good pub grub, not overly expensive and Cally liked the narrow boats as we wandered the tow path afterwards. Apparently it opened as a Public house October 1777, the same year that the Trent & Mersey Canal was completed. The line of the building (formerly 2-3 cottages) is not parallel to the canal, which has suggested that the building existed before the canal, becoming an alehouse for watermen. From here it was a quck trip to the Ice Cream Farm for a quick cone and then onto Stockley Working Farm an organic enterprise where Cal enjoyed the tractor ride, the small tractors, lambs, kids (yes of the goat variety), pigs, calves and seeing some 6 week old Barn Owls. Me, I was more impressed by the Highland Cows, don't know why bu I lik the things. Back home and saw the tail end of the test match. Winning by an innings, it ain't on England, I'd planned on watching the match tomorrow and it isn't going to happen because we beat Zimbabwe in three days. What is the world coming too. In the meanwhile Bournemouth have won promotion, good for them.

Meetings

Gig up at Warrington today. Sue Jones from NHSU strutting her funky stuff only for Melanie Hinde, Tracy Roberts-Cuffin (who brought me grey lit and therefore counts as one of the goodies) and Linda Riley to rain on her parade. Felt a bit of a lone voice saying stuff the resources let's rock'n'roll. we can sort all that kind of crap out later, we have a good start if we start to unleash the potential of what we have now, so let's stop finding reasons not to do it and get on with the job. Sue's cool and more power to NHSU's elbow I reckon. Other than that I guess the highlight was the Athens talk. Mersey group as vocal as ever..... not. As ever though it was the networking that was the important bit. Val Haigh from Hope, is open to telling me how to get the records out of DBTextworks and into something sensible (aka Cairs). Hilda was about, which was cool, Bernie was doing her stuff and is interested in sorting out a webbed version of Heritage for 5 Boroughs, top idea. Ian Brown was there, sans campari (the more I meet Ian the more I think he could prove to be quite useful to the libraries in St Helen's if they give the guy a break), Beryl (star primary care librarian from the Wirral), Rachel Bury (in all her Amelia Fletcher glory). Star event for me was Rose from Burnley convinced she'd heard of Makin' Time, cool if she has but as likely as me getting pregnant, but she is a love anyway. Of course our crew was there in full and Val. Explained to Camp Freddy why I was pissed at the notion of Heritage maintenance and the outstretched hand and to be fair to him he understood where I was coming from and go the message. Helped mightily by Graeme from Gabby Kearney who has a clearer recollection of events.... Back to find Ken had rung to say he wasn't due to be in but was going to the Ship and Mitre (sorry I didn't make it mate but Monst is in work now and I needed to get back to feed the hordes and get her to the gig). Anyway typing this to Chumabawamba' 'Showbusiness', a class live album. Go there for a change of sound.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgghhh! Finance Library

Is in a bigger mess than I thought, I've got books on the shelves that have moved location about 10 times already as I find more and more stuff not in its Dewey order. Having listened to her old man and a 'Taste of Pink', Fay Hallam and 'Makin' Time' are rockin my world at the moment.

Draft Accreditation Report

Linda sent me the draft report yesterday, which I quickly skimmed through and thought it was OK (gooner logic applied we can still do better) so dragged it up to Adam my line manager who pointed out how positive it really was. Buzzed all the way home to find no one in to celebrate with because Cal had gone to Stephanie's to play. Anyway as Monst was with him I just pottered about doing my thang but did get a bit concerned when 9.00 came and they hadn't called for a lift back. Anyway they turned up at home safely having had a whale of a time. Athens admin rights came though late yesterday for: Central Liverpool PCT South Liverpool PCT North Liverpool PCT Liverpool Social Services Sefton Social Services Cheshire and Mersey Strategic Health Authority Cheshire and Mersey Workforce Development Confederation Mersey Regional Ambulance NHS Trust just need to work out how it all works now.......

Melville Dewey Be Warned

Sod dewey, sod shelving, sod finance libraries. Shelving is not going as easily as it should because the finance people at the finance library couldn't count. At last the mess of NHS finance is explained! Melville though I'm after yer..... or at least I would be if you weren't dead....

Headache

Sat in the library with a splitting head feeling really sorry for myself. Sod it crank up the music, swallow some paracetomol and get on with it you horror.

Letters and Prawnography

Just written a letter to Knowsley PCT's Speech and Language Therapy Service asking to use Claire as a witness, it's a bit of a coutesy job because if they say no we'll just subpeona her anyway. Now I hate writing letters and try and avoid them as much as possible even though Melinda Coonghe could tell you in the past I've been a regular correspondent in my youth (whatever happened to Mindy I wonder) but then I was young, stoopid and was in love with the idea of being in love (spot the Hefner reference or what...). Other excitement is the launch of a Dano blog so I can get my head round it pre migration so an unsuspecting world has had the Prawnographer launched at it. Dedicated to all things prawny it'll aim to bring the best in prawn to people's attention. Mind you it might branch out to any other crustacean that takes my fancy.... The verdict on Dano so far, it makes RSS feeds a doddle, looks and feels OK too. If migration is smooth it'll be a positive move.

Maintenance

When will librarians learn they need to pay this on their LMS's and not whinge about it? Message ends but you know who you are trying to get us to pay for it.......

Aaaargh, Data Centres.....

Got into to find this in my mail...... 'Many thanks for your email stating your requirements. Unfortunately, after discussions with the Systems team, we cannot offer access to the datacenter unless it is an emergency. This is because we would need to have someone in the datacenter during this period and this is unfeasible for us. However, your engineer should be able to install the application remotely, or if you can pass us a copy of the application on CD, we will, for a charge, be able to install the application for you. Your engineer would then of course be able to configure the application through Terminal Services or PC Anywhere. Please let me know your thoughts on this matter.' Might not be a wise last line, it might not be too clean......

Scanning Station Installed

Just installed the last bit of the dedicated scanning station we got out of the last round of bids. Digitisation of pre COIN NHS Circulars here we come. Leanne's fella's just called to let me know she's off to the quacks today. Poor girl. Meanwhile the Soft Boys seranade me as I enjoy a glass of grapefruit juice in a civilised start to my working day.

This Is Our Art

Ex-bass player with the Soup Dragons, ex-BMX Bandit and blogger Sushil K. Dade of Future Pilot AKA is gently soothing my ears with the soft tones of 'tiny waves, mighty sea'. Sushil was responsible for a bout of drunkenes not witnessed before when I was a student in Ulster because the Soup Dragons played Coleraine and this was the narest we got to real music.... Check out 'tiny waves, mighty sea' not only is it a work of stunning beauty but it's a who's who of the Scottish Indie scene in one record. It even includes a rocking librarian in Stephen Pastel, what more could you ask for. Such beauty is not of this world.

June Launch Date

CAIRS and the Fade web launch seems to be coming together mid-Junish, will include the Salford entrypoint so we carry Salford with us. This is cool, and follows a quick call from a geezer called Paul Halfpenny who is a touch concerned about his data centre but is relatively chilled otherwise. Good people at either end. Now I whinge about IT departments regularly but find me a good techie, someone who talks language I understand or who is at least prepared to meet me half way and we're laughing. In the meanwhile Stevie P seems to be well on the way to solvng the Terminal Services Problem with NHSnet and is sorting out a sticky-backed plastic, wire and strings, FTP jobby in the interim, so bits of the mirror will be up sooner rather than later....

Dislocated and on the Trail of Athens

Another day of total dislocation on my part. The gig to fetch more finance library fell through so looks like that may be a job for tomorrow PM. Still trying to sort athens admin rights, needed advice and either librarian's are off on leave at the same time. Anyway Leo came to the rescue with some sensible advice for non-NHSnet users (we discovered this later when it made no sense for us as we use NHSnet). Anyway upshot was a visit to Stevie P to sort some stuff out.

Library Co-ordinators gig in Chester tomorrow so early kick off here then dart under the river to Val's for 8.30 and Chester for 9.00. Could be interesting or grim, who can tell.

Cat Fud

A morning for hungry cats, as Katie dances round my legs and as Maria and Terry are on holiday, Mitzy and Ritzy need feeding too. Better do it because hell has no fury like a hungry cat.

Great Things to Do In a Library When You're Dead

OK a bit misleading, but we discovered today that we need to pick up registration rights in Athens for various PCT's the StHA, and the Ambulance Trust we bagged as one of ours. Need advice from Liz Farrell about IP gubbins, IP addresses in PCT's are generally a mess so I need to know if they need a definite range or can we get away without that kind of detail? On the plus side it means Athens must be close..... As for the title I guess the following apply: 1) Act as a book end 2) Fool people into thinking the library is busy by developing rigor mortis in a carrell 3) Rot, it requires no effort, just try it

Pedal Steel

I know it's very country but I'm really warming to the sound of a pedal steel whining away in the background of the odd Hefner track. Got my shit together and sent Ken the Gogle guide I lovingly ripped off the other day.... Finance Library Update Wrighington hospital, easy place to get to by car, fall off the M6 and your there. But boy is the finance library a pig. It's on the second floor, the lift stops on the first floor. Apparently the porters in the hospital refused to remove stock from it. Having shifted 5 boxes today I can see why. It's a pig. Tracy and myself after 10 boxes tomorrow. The shelving side of it is a doddle, providing your numerate (oh, how I wish I was) because it's classified in poxy Dewey, a sin against the intelligence of mnkind if ever one was committed. Melville is on my list with Walt Disney for retrospective abortion come the glorious day.....

It Ain't Rock'n'Roll

Sat on the phone at the moment waiting on someone from Dell to pick up.... mid way through some piece of classical music featuring a flute in a heavy way. Feel very uneducated 'cos I can't tell you what it is, but as the buggers are based in Bracknell why ain't I got the loving strains of the Magic Mushroom Band. Hang on it's stopped and another classical monstrosity has started.... all I want is a sodding price. What happened to storesmen in brown overcoats, tutting to themselves, taking the piss out of you but eventually comeing up with the goods?

Appealing

Kind of makes sense given the first test starts on Thursday and I'm sat here filling in appeal forms. Thank non-existent deities for NHS.UK for addresses. It aint the great product it could be but it has value in some ways. Just feel though that I may be wasting time, and I hate form filling at the best of times.

Chicken Run

Chicken's in the oven and the half hour countdown to 'Full Metal Challenge' has begun, spuds are just about to get theres, and the sun is out. Just been reading about Dano which apparently is where all blogs are migrating.... Just read the Rapidly Diminishing Ken Clare's Blog realise come Monday need to send him some stuff. This is a gentle reminder to myself. Been pricing hard drives, might turn out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise (sod it I once did a debate at the St. Alban's Debating Society about Snakes and Ladders on the side of the Ladders and it's kinda stuck, which is a bit depressing for a git like me) have some freaky plans involving Cairs to check out. Spuds be warned I have a sharp knife and yer just about to get a peeling you ain't gonna forget..... 'Oh sharks teeth are pearly white dear....'

Shagged Hard Drive

Looks like the laptops hard drive is well and truly knackered. Curses. On the plus side Cal and I have been swimming so we're all healthy. Cal is demolishing some marmite tast as I type. We have a problem with mamrmite in this household, unless we hide the pot he'll be in there eating it straight out of the jar (worst bit of this crime is not only does it sound disgusting but prevents me from getting at the stuff.