Colin the Dog

What happened to Frday did Brenda's FoI gig blow my brains that much I missed the rest of Friday, actually more likely that I was comatose. It contnued as I sorted the news without thinking this morning. Morning score the two series of Spaced in a two for one deal at the Prole Shop at the New Mersey Retail Park as Speke is now labeled although No Mercy would be a more appropriate description of a place where Bargyn ancient deity of hunter gatherers is worshipped so assiduously. Also picked up copies of the related Shaun of the Dead and Downfall. Monst's fault because I'm sent there to fetch a Christmas pressie for Cal. Fetch that from Argos and back home via Sainsburys of Woolton. Fetch up at home and pick up the wee fella and it's off to Holly Tree Farm where I invest in some beer mainly from Springhead sup some Roundhead's Gold tonight and book the goose for Christmas. So somewhere in deepest darkest Cheshire there is a confused Goose wandering around with Lamb on its bum. Home via the play barn and Asda where I grab a stock pot. Cal enjoys Granny Takes a Trip. At some point he comes to see me crying because somebody's kicked him. I cheer him up and send him back to play. He needed to run of some steam. Back and feed Monst and then take her to work. Technorati Tags: Christmas Planning; Goose; Springhead Brewery; Beer; Play Barn; Downfall; Spaced; Shaun of the Dead

Buckie Belle

Monst begins planning Christmas in true Glaswegian Rab C. style when she suggests we at some point prepare some Bucks Fizz but it comes out as Buckfast. A nice moment of shared hilarity. Technorati Tags: Buckfast; Rab C. Nesbitt; Christmas Planning

ERROR: SEARCH STATEMENT EXCEEDS 500 CHARACTERS PLEASE CHECK AND RE-ENTER

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgh! There are times I could kill Dialog and the search was a thing of beauty too. Technorati Tags: Dialog; Literature Searching

Bean Counting

1989 the beginning of my life with the NHS although I was employed by a University at the time all comes flooding back with a query regarding the state of the the Health Service pre-trusts. Lots of counting and my didn't we have a lot of hospitals in Liverpool way back when. All for some nefarious reason I'm kept in the dark about but it doesn't support the argument it should apparently. Scores on the Doors for the former Mersey Regional Health Authority Health Authorities 10 Acutes 19 Specialists 8 Community Hospitals 21 Mental Health 24 Visit from Elaine Gilleland too pm, we bemoan HR departments, IT etc. Nice joint whinge and ever a delight to see her. Technorati Tags: NHS Reforms

Respectable Street

Sleep pattern bizarre again, got home last night shattered, by midnight I was fully awake and then wonder why I'm up late this morning. So perhaps not the day to be asking who the hell supplies the gas and electricity at home. Monst changed suppliers, got the woe is us phone call from the old suppliers, changed back and on recieving the woe is us call from the new suppliers told them to argue about it amongst themselves. The result, loads of bills for relatively small amounts and general confusion as to who exactly our supplier currently is. So I ring Southern Electric who it transpires are supplying us with electricity and think that in the future they will be supplying us with gas. Then call Npower who currently supply the gas and have no knowledge that they are about to not be supplying us with gas. Change the Electric to Npower and now wait to see if the gas changes on me (I predict this will happen if only to spite the notion of consolidating on a supplier we've used before and know). De-regulation you can stick it, since it came in we've been visited by young men who obviously aren't mormons trying to sell us energy suppliers, deafened by the ring of the phone from suppliers and generally confused. It's all bollox. Reschedule my job match for AfC now styled A4C. Deep joy. Start to get my head round some FoI work. Sort a meeting out with the LDB and begin to get through my Remember the Milk tasks. Also manage to locate the records of St Helen's CHC which means I have a future date in the archives section of the public library over there. Yippee, a day of reading and digesting CHC stuff and copying relevant bits if I can get a feel for whats relevant from the Inquiry folks. Afternoon promises more FoI. Aaron wants to come round to ours, Monst is trying to sort that and the holiday snaps have to be developed. Result is no need to worry about what to cook because it will be pizza tonight. Unless Monst changes the plan. Technorati Tags: Deregulated Fuel Industry; Npower; Southern+Electric; St Helens CHC

Otis I Presume

Elavator Pitch looks a kinda interesting idea.

When in Rome

Watch Rome which I'm not certain about so it has a couple of episodes to catch my attention. Cal comes home with a nice piece of grey lit the 'My Brain Gym Workbook'. From it I learn that 'My brain needs six glasses of water a day', comes from the South Sefton EiC Action Zone who seem to have grabbed it from Moving Minds, might start using it myself! Good news my blogs are now free of the word verification haiving been checjed out by the good folk from blogger. That's a huge relief and it was quick too.

Er,,,, that was the day...

Into work, kick off the news because I got up late. Marie calls to remind me of the PCT Librarians Meeting at theres. I go mainly to be honest to catch up with Marie which we do over beer and coffee. Nice to catch up, she's a little star. Back to Hammy, discover I'm working with Belle, Cinderella, Snow White and Alice in Libraryland. I get cast as any Disney baddie going and Dave is Prince Charming and Beast. Don't ask but it has been kind of fun. Fail to achieve what I'd set out to do today so need to do it tomorrow. Curses, my own fault. Monst been holiday searching again.

For Christina

Commentary on the Past, and Future, of Libraries from BeSpacifc Metadata Tools and Learning Objects from Catalogablog Pudding in a TagCloud from ResearchBuzz 20051024-04: Jessamyn on Social Software from the Shifted Librarian Standards for administrative metadata? from digitizationblog Thinking about the Future from Library Stuff

Cheese and Ham Sandwich

Cancel the sorting of the photos at Speke as planned, sent to Dominos for Pizza. Allows a first listen of the start of 'That Was Then... and So is This' from the Solarflares and mighty fine it is too. Sad to see they've called it a day but not altogether suprised. Grab a pint in the Da Vinci while I wait. Home and feed. Collapse in a jet lagged heap. To be honest I've not really been with it most of the afternoon. Alive but tired is probably the best description. Monst calls Mattie to let her know she's sorted a day trip to Lapland. Mattie puts the phone down on her. I'm called on to make a diplomatic phone call (surely some mistake) leave a message because Mattie doesn't pick up. Mattie calls back and all is well. Might have something to do with the emotions floating around the second anniversary of Margaret, Monst's Mum today. Bit of a shame, we all miss her in our own ways, I was lucky I liked my mother-in-law and maybe that goes some way to explain my rrational dislike of mother-in-law jokes. Start the tidying up, deep joy. Want to stay up to see Richard Hammonds thing on the Gunpowder plot. Reach for a bottle of Old Nick and prepare to succumb to sleep. Then get the call from Monst that she's hungry and wants a cheese and ham sandwich. More joy.

Crazy Paving, Lionel Blair, Are You Going to Scarborough Fayre?

My copy of 'Some People Are On The Pitch They Think It's All Over It Is Now' has arrived via the good folk of Amazon. Nice to here it after so many years but it wasn't until the listen on the way back from the Heaf' that I heard it. May make no sense but first couple of spin throughs were a grumpy me chasing circulars (poor Nicola bore the brunt of that one for which I am extremely sorry), stressed by the M. folks and their potential for causing grief and mayhem. Second listen was during the mad dash to get to the Heaf' on time. Third one was the charm, with me cranking up the volume and enjoying it mightily because the M. thing wasn't as bad as I'd built it up to be. Back at Regatta, I offer vague apologies about this morning at crossed purposes with poor Nicola who is talking about my failiure to get the mark of Cinderella. I also try and enthuse Christina about folksonomy etc. But I'm knackered which may account for both and have an evening of house tidying to look forward too after Monst has dealt with the photos from Disney. Disaster has struck her Santa trip, it was cancelled due to lack of interest but she's sorted something out with someone else and used the travel agent to get snotty with the holiday firm over an internet ad of free child places that they din't want to honour. Must have been a vicous agent because she has the free place sorted for Aaron. Downside is she hasn't told Mattie about it yet. So Christmas Eve I get to do my own thing for most of the day.

Useful Stuff

KickRSS tool for bringing disparate feeds into one place. Now to use it effectively in a non-RSS savvy NHS. If health news was an easy commodity to identify and you could trust editors to make the same judgements on the basis of public health interest etc. Then this could be the dogs for saving us loads of work but with the exception of a few feeds that we implicitly trust I prefer the human editor role we have on the news stuff we do. In the future though may be a route to cut down some work. MyPIMP looks like it maybe a solution to the calendaring issues of the library. Not really issues but more a way of saving searching to find out where the hell we all are at any given point. Looks like it does some of the same stuff as Remember the Milk. Get round to looking at Library Thing which looks like quite a nice tool for home use, but there's no way I'm gonna catalogue my books at home, life's too short and I have too many books about the place. I'm sticking with Reader² which recods he stuff I'm reading which is I suspect for me more interesting right now plus it provides a nice RSS feed of the stuff I'm reading which is quite sweet but how much use it is to anyone else I'm not certain.

Home at Last

Home at last with a chatty cabbie, made me laugh, made Monst chat, made Cal sleep! Helen here when we arrive which is a relief because it means that we don't have a starved cat or the mess a cat trapped in the house can leave. Believe me it is nice to see Katie, she's an important part of the family. Plan was to head out for a Pizza to avoid the worst of the trick or treaters but with Cal asleep we opt for a visit to the Ying Wah instead and a takeout. Rain in the end keeps most of them at home and the few that come round are pleasant although the couple of teenage (fairies/angels) in mini skirts, garters and pink wings confuse me mightily. Come home with some Younng's Old Nick Barley Wine, with a degree of trepidation. Hope it's 'Frankie and Johnny' free stuff. It's a kinda Halloween Night celebration. Home and discover that: 'Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.' That'll be the result of the stuff I post in preparation for weekend Fade the Blog which is also suffering from the word verification issue. Pleased in many respects that they're doing this but it's a bit of a pain while it gets sorted. Ask for human verification and it's a case of in blogger we trust. Can see why both blogs appear like spam blogs too, because lots of links point at the same sources in terms of the press, thing is each is individually selected to meet the needs of the users of the library service and it's a far from automated process and is labour intensive. Just hope that they look at the motivation behind Fade the Blog in addition to the content. Main issue for me is it has bitched up my mobile blogging. Bad news Cal's Santa Trip is under threat, the travel company have cancelled due to lack of numbers, Monst aims to try and cut a deal with them tomorrow. Meanwhile strange things have been happening while we are away. The fireworks intended to celebrate the fact that Fawkes, Catesby et al failed to blow up Parliament have been upsetting Katie. The Mitchell Brothers have appeared in Albert Square (hmmm... thinks combine the two, we could celebrate the blowing up of the Mitchell Bothers). Which reminds me must watch member of Sally's part of the wall of men, Richard Hammond on the whole plot, where they test to see what would have happened if the powder went bang.

N 51o 36.957' W 001o 13.781'

Get through the airport stuff by about 10.15 and find the old fella. Then play the game of hunt the car. The old fellas been at the airport for hours and can't remember where he's left it, a five floor car park we visit all five. Load up and off we go. Sad git I am I play the game of name the pubs on the way back to the folks place.

Knackered, sit and chat for a bit before a kip. Kip, good, wake at 6.00 and feed myself the first coffee of the day. Have a quick listen to the Dropkick Murphy's album which wakes me up good and proper. The old drear wakes up, chat with her and have a companionable bowl of porridge. It's nice. Couple of issues with the old fella's PC, sort them easily, sort some blog issues, need to sort through them again later. Sort the issue with his DAB too for good measure.

Fail to solve request for help on the digital camera front. End up leaving that one to Monst who knows more about such devices.

Bum a lift to Milton Keynes which not only now has concrete cows and Tracy's sister Carole (who incidently is in no way cow related but has a link to the Keynes) but has me travelling from the risible Milton Keynes Central. Note for non-UK familiar readers of this bit, Milton Keynes is a new town built as London overspill, it is home to the Open University, has some statues that are life size cows made out of concrete, MK Dons FC (the club formerly known as Wimbledon - Franchise FC etc) and was designed on a grid system along the lines of Manhatten. For some reason a proportion of us over here find this all vaguely amusing. It is now also home to the Great Morrisons disaster. This is twofold, firstly the food I have bought for Cal and Monst takes over half an hour to arrive, by which time they don't have time to eat it before we leave for the train (my old fella and I are alright because we opted for cooking free sandwiches). Secondly I've forgotten the milk for work because I am here, they are there and travel has been chaotic. Tracy to the rescue I hope as I ask her to send Dave for milk, leave incoherent messages for Gill Fury who gently reminds me with an e-mail labeled Vital!! Jump the train at MK Central (imagine a marginally maniacall chuckle at this and your with me right now) then lug a large bag the length of the carriage to find somewhere to stow it.

Monst fetches food for herself and Cal and coffee for me, settle back and blog, send a reply to Gill's email. Still tapping away at Nuneaton which we've just left.

Plane II

It's going, yay! The plane, the plane.

Monarch

Plane, yay! On the boards, er... no, boo!

Sheraton II

Bad night, a conference of student entrepreneurs, a room next to an ice machine, coke vending machine, me in a restless mood, beered up Brits and students conspire to deliver little sleep. I admit that I don't help matters as I discover we have voice mail and seek a route or at least instructions on how to receive it. The guide in the guest pack mentions a messaging button that appears to have gone missing in action. In desperation I call reception who tell me it is a message to say we need to be on the bus at 6.00 am. In the process of achieving this knowledge I wake Monst and this is around 12.30'ish. I grab a bath at the first chinese dentist of the day in a quest for inner peace and a bit of kip. It doesn't work but at least I get in some solid reading. Enjoying 'Island of the Sequined Love Nun' it is as promised.

Alarm goes at 4.30 and off to breakfast we head. Mystery box breakfast. I score a bagel as does Monst. With it are apples and Sprite. Coffee and tea are also on offer along with toasters to sort the bagels. Cal hits the kiddie jackpot with a muffin and some Welch's Concord Grape Juice which he's disgusted with but comes my way.

We're first in at 5.00, assorted fellow travellers straggle in after us and make British grumbling sounds at the breakfast provided. Makes you proud to be British (irony strikes again I'm afraid). No wonder the Aussies refer to us as Whinging Poms.

Waiting on the buses now that were supposed to be here five minutes ago. Deep joy a dash through customs etc. Buses arrive and on we pile. Next stop the airport and non-existent deities knows what.

Sheraton

Phone home, mail people at work and hole up in the Sheraton. Beer, blog and predicted buffet dinner. Hotel is kinda plush. Grey parrots in the lobby which is odd. As are the pith helmets on the people welcoming you into the place.

Bar was odd, I have a natural distrust of any place called Coconuts and when I find it full of my fellow countryman whinging about the price of a glass of Fosters, putting on fake Aussie accents and suggesting that the barmaid should be topless at the prices she charges, it really ain't a place I want to be. Grab a Sam Adams and cokes for Cal and Monst and hightail it out of the place as quick as I can.

Decide against the buffet and head accross the road to the Peacock Garden Chinese Restaurant. Monst and Cal approve of the chicken soup, I start with some cracking steamed dumplings. Follow that up with some honey garlic chicken and curry and we're sorted. Very nice but very filling.

Back to the hotel and collapse.