What’s that you say?
At ten to four in the afternoon?
With my reputation?
World of wrong!
Posted at quarter to five, from an apartment in the midst of Paris, after an excellent day — I just hope I remember tomorrow.
February 17, 2008
February 13, 2008
Resolve
It’s been a few weeks since I declared my 2008 Resolution , so it’s probably time to revisit it.
First, I wanted to address a couple of questions people have asked.
Isn’t this whole idea a bit shallow?
Oh yes, it’s incredibly shallow. But then aren’t most holidays unless you’re trekking for charity or building mud huts in the Congo? At least doing this will force me to travel to places I would never have visited, and probably travel via methods and routes I would normally have ignored. Is it any better or worse than returning to the same sun-drenched beach for two weeks every year?
It’s still a fair comment, so I’m going to try and not just go to places to tick the box, but we’ll see how possible that is.
Isn’t all going to be a bit rushed?
Aye, some countries are going to get shortchanged. But I’m going to make an effort to spend a decent chunk of time in each country, or at least the ones I’ve not been to before. I don’t want to do a ‘stand on the border, foot over, tick the box, move on’ thing, but on the other hand if I do want to get to all the countries then some places will get more time than others.
And I don’t think it’s a bad idea to visit places quickly to get a feel for them, I’d rather spend a day in three different cities and want to return to them all than spend three days somewhere I’m bored of after two hours. Plus I know that given more time I just get too laid back, but under a deadline I’ll make the effort to get out and see things. I’ll have time to relax when I’m travelling between places.
Can’t I just visit less places?
Of course, but it wouldn’t have the same ring, would it?
Plus I’d just pick ‘easy places’, by aiming for a set of countries that’s defined by something else I’m forced to stretch a bit.
So with all that said, how’s the progress looking? I’m going to resist scoring off the UK, because of my comments above about not just ‘ticking the box’, so the list looks like:
With 125 non-working days left I still need to visit 20 countries (27 to do then in all ’08.)
Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Countries I’ve visited pre-2008 are in grey, countries visited in 2008 are scored out.
Eeek, that’s not looking good. I’d better do something to improve matters.
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February 11, 2008
Gleaming
A so another week begins, and I stagger my groggy, slightly hungover, self into work.
But what’s this? There’s something on everyone’s desk.
A present from the gods of corporate? What a fabulous way to start the week!
I contemplate the gift for a bit, what can it be? It’s a small grey package in some sort of plastic sleeve, about the size of a pack of cards but half the thickness. The company logo is prominently displayed across the front.
Maybe it’s set of business cards, a crisp twenty pound note, a name badge, a little metal ingot or a voucher for something-or-other.
Perhaps it’s just a little card from the high heid yins saying “thanks for the hard work.”
No, it’s none of the above.
It’s a lens cleaning cloth.
Woo-bloody-hoo!
Now we can all have our own personal cloth to polish our lens to our hearts content.
And it’s branded, just so we know who’s paid for that gleaming shine.
The little plastic sleeve it came in is arguably more useful than the cloth itself.
Fabulous use of the companies money there guys!
Corporate Wankers.
I’m tempted to blow my nose with it.
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January 30, 2008
Time passes…
Time passes…
It’s been a while since the last post, I guess I’ve been distracted by technology and infuriating web games.
The bathroom is finally finished, plumbed, tiled, painted, decorated, the works. I’ve even forked over the money for it.
So, eh, woo-hoo, it’s only a year since I first tried to get it done and seven and a half-months since the current gang took over. I’ll try and put some longer posts up with my thoughts on the companies involved and maybe some pictures when I have more time.
The wise choice would be to just quit there but the shiny (ish) new bathroom is making the rest of the flat look bad in comparison. Particularly the kitchen …
Maybe more posts next week, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Time passes…
Day dawns.
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January 14, 2008
Everything’s coming up SpaceDog!
I’ve had a good few days, first my bathroom is almost finished, hopefully I’ll be able to post the full saga shortly.
Also my collection of shiny things has grown:
It’s the PlayStation 3 that’s new, the iPod just crept into the photo because it was jealous. I’ve only played with it briefly but it’s a pretty damn good machine, it’s insanely easy to set up and it’s now happily talking to the Internet and streaming stuff from my server via the magic of TVersity. It’s the 60Gb model (off eBay) so it plays old PS2 games although I have to get a converter if I want to grab my old data off the old memory cards.
That’s not all, over the weekend I won a raffle, netting me both a hamper of Mexican goodies and tasting menu for two at Le Trois Garcons. Spot on.
Finally I played a nice friendly game of poker at the weekend. I won. I won even when I was trying to lose.
It’s been a good weekend.
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January 10, 2008
Anniversaries …
I missed the first one, yesterday was the two year anniversary of this site. Woo-hoo !
This post is the 185th post on the site, almost one post every four days, which is sounds so unlikely that I had to check the figures three times to be sure.
Today is the one year anniversary of the the first phone call I made to get my bathroom sorted and refitted. It’s still not finished, but it’s a damn site further on than it was a week ago so I’m mostly happy. I expect there will be at least one more bathroom post when it’s all finished.
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January 2, 2008
An inauspicious start
So, the start of the new year found me waking up on the couch. And not even my couch.
As a start to the new year it’s not the best, but no worse than I might have expected.
It’s after that that it’s gone downhill, today my hangover receded to reveal a particularly nasty cold. Which would have been OK but I’d foolishly opted to go into work today which was not the most pleasant experience.
I struggled through the day and even managed to do a bit of tiding when I got home tonight.
Sadly that was a step too far, while washing the dishes I noticed a particularly foul aroma. This was interesting as I’d not been able to smell anything else all day so I knew it was pretty bad. It was then I heard my least favourite noise, dripping water. Turns out the waste pipe from the sink had broken where the outlet from the washing machine joins it, drenching the cupboard under the sink in foul smelling water. And I can still smell it despite my blocked nose.
So, starting the year with another plumbing fiasco. Fantastic.
Time for a beer.
On the bright side, the kitchen should all be getting replaced shortly so I only need to patch up the plumbing for a few weeks. Even I can manage that.
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January 1, 2008
Happy New Year
Last year I was accused of being a bit sentimental. So this year it’s short and sweet.
I hope everyone’s had a great 2007 and I wish you all have a fantastic 2008, lang may yer lum reek.
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December 31, 2007
2008 Resolution
I liked last years resolution but it was a bit wishy-washy. So, what for this year?
I could do something sensible like resolve to save some money, get fitter or lose some weight. But everyone does that, and most of them end up abandoning it after January, just like I would.
I’ve resolved to do something that’s not too easy, but is at least plausible and fun. Since I’ve already decided not to do a several week holiday this year I might as well give me a target to get me out of the flat, and the country.
So, here goes:
By the 31st of December 2008, I resolve to have visited each of the 27 member states of the European Union.
I’ve had this idea in the back of my head for a few months, and it was originally ‘visit each capital city for a day.’ The version above allows more wiggle room (notably allowing me to count the seven countries I’ve already visited if I need to, even if Greece is a stretch since it was over fifteen years ago.)
Still, it’s going to be interesting if I really commit myself to doing it. And, barring any disasters, I plan to give it my best.
At least it makes the progress post easier, here’s the first one:
With 134 non-working days left I still need to visit 20 countries (27 to do then in all ’08.)
Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Countries I’ve visited pre-2008 are in grey, countries visited in 2008 are scored out.
December 30, 2007
Final Progress
One final progress for the year …
People Visited: 22 (4) [Last: 20/4]
Places Visited: lots… (4) [Last: 11/3]
Countries Visited: 10 (5) [Last: 6/2]
So, what do I think? Well I made up for my lack of travel in the last few months of the year. I don’t think I’ll do another ‘big bang’ trip anytime soon, little and often next year. Still it was excellent.
The important part of the resolution was to visit people, to get in touch more. I can honestly say that I’ve made the effort to see more people this year than I might otherwise have. And I’ve managed to get in contact, even if only electronically, with almost everyone that I really wanted to, and that certainly was encouraged by this resolution.
Check back tomorrow morning for my 2008 resolution …
See the Original post for the details and the rules.
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