Big Al's Spot (& Annie too)

Well I'm currently writing this from a Linux session on Knoppix and it is almost too easy to believe. The settings in Blogger are not all working but these things happen.

I'm about to run a Linux Distribution called Knoppix on my 'puter so if you don't see me for a while you know what has happened, I've messed the whole thing up.

I want to find out about MySQL databases, and have a Linux box to experiment with our websites use of rewrite_mod to create pseudo html pages that are easier to spider than our current setup. Don't think it is a wise idea to messabout with our live site.

Fingers crossed.

Little sister went home to Norn Iron (Northern Ireland) with her two wee-uns via plane earlier in the week and the brother-in-law (BIL herein) drove up to Scotland later on in the week to get the boat from Stranraer.

The BIL managed to load all the Christmas presents from myself and Anna and all the presents for everyone back in Norn Iron, but in an act that he will never ever live down, he actually managed to forget to load up his son and daughters Christmas presents, which are still up in the roofspace at his house.

My sister didn't say anything and the BIL is embarassed enough as it is.

I'm just glad their kids are still quite young, they will be happy with a big cardboard box as a toy, if last year was anything to go by. Although making sure my brother doesn't sit on and wreck his nephews cardboard box with a drawing of a car on the outside of it, is probably a good idea if we want to avoid the crying match we had last year.

A walk

Pretty uneventful really, took Turbo and Tazzy to Hampton Lakes for a walk before Lunch and both hounds barked their way their despite being poked and prodded, stroked and tickled.

The paths were extremely muddy with potholes you could have got lost in. Despite the ice Turbos first reaction was to leap straight into the lake and splash a couple who were cleaning their wellington boots in the lake. Even Tazzy had a small dip into the water.

The change in Taz is amazing in just six weeks, she has started to get thinner, she is certainly more sprightly and she is now even prepared to turn her nose up at food. Her previous dog food is in the back shed and she doesn't even go near it or try to pinch the odd mouthful.

Working

Anna is working today, she has 3 teas and 6 tuck-ins to do between 4pm and 10pm. Most of the clients are either wheelchair bound or are very elderly and need a bit of a hand doing some domestic chores or getting into bed. She has got a few wee pressies for her clients and one includes a present of a pigs ear for a beautiful Clumber dog - it will stop Taz and Turbo fighting over it, if nothing else.

Presents

I've got a four new books (that will keep me going a while), smellies (including a motivating shower gel - I need a lot of that at times), cufflinks (lost the last pair), chocolates (jolly nice they were too :-) )

Feng Shite: A Little Book of House Messing

a gift from my sister, boy do I identify with nearly everything I've read so far. A lot of it you wouldn't want to be seen to be able to identify with, but I have to admit that the author could have been writing about me. A couple of quotes:

• Pets: Long haired varieties are best
• The Modern Element: Fire, Earth, Wind and Water are all fine and dandy, but House Messers prefer Plastic! Save supermarket carrier bags as if your life depended on it.

Autobiography of a One Year Old

Reading a few chapters of this had me in fits of laughter and I don't even have children. It is much funnier when you read it out loud in a sarcastic voice, or so it seems to me anyway.

Had to go shopping today to get my beloveds Christmas presents.

I don't like shopping much, other than for myself, at the best of times, but with a duff ankle and sore toe it was even more of a chore than normal. I traipsed round the shops and managed to get a few things that I hope are better than some of the presents I've heard some people get, like:

• A spud pealer
• A mop
• A stuffed cows head to hang on the wall
• a pedometer
• a snow shovel
• a new milk-pan
• A remote control walking yapping dog
• a smoke alarm
• a plastic, toy mobile phone that played tunes
• a fake bottle of Tommy Girl (the stuff was orange!)

We will just have to wait and see.

Empty glasses sat on the side of your bath are a disaster waiting to happen when you empty the water out of the bath, but continue to sit in it.

And just how do I know about this and why am I writing about it?

It happened to me. I managed to knock a big sturdy glass into the bottom of our enamel bath and the bloody thing shattered and managed to impale me in the side of the left leg. I managed not to panic too much and luckily Anna was on hand to help extricate me after some delicate maneuvering.

I had visions of an ambulance man/woman trying to get me out of the bath, not easy at the best of times, but then I became very nauseous at the sight of the blood (doesn't usually happen, but I'd not had anything to eat in about 14 hours - that's my story and I'm sticking to it) and the visions of being naked, bloody, covered in vomit and in front of complete strangers really put the tin hat on the situation.

Fortunately the visions didn't turn into reality, a glass of water sorted out the nausea, Anna got rid of the glass piece by piece and a big sticking plaster sorted out the small deep wound. Could have been a whole lot worse though.

Anna has been quite stressed this week waiting for a dress for a customer in bonny Scotland. She waited in all day Thursday for a delivery and it didn't come, and then tried to work out contingency plans for getting the item to the customer should it not arrive on time.

Living in the Midlands its pretty convenient for this sort of service as most networks involve a depot somewhere close to us. This basically means that any item going from the Midlands area has plenty of time to be collected and routed to any part of the UK. Items going the other way from the extremities of the UK are much more time sensitive and more likely to involve a delay or misrouting of some sort.

Anyway we checked out a courier in Coventry and while the parcel would have probably got there they didn't have an insurance scheme suitable if it didn't, so I checked out the rules and regulations for getting compensation for consequential loss from the Post Office, should the item not arrive on time.

I'm not sure they would pay out (what insurance does), but we opted for £1000 consequential loss on top of the cost for sending via Guaranteed delivery, so if the item had not arrived by Monday I would have been authorised to allow our customer to get herself to Edinburgh or Glasgow and go into any swanky shop to get a suitable dress to fit her, provided that she kept the receipts.

Luckily it didn't come to that, we got a phone call this afternoon from our customer to tell us that not only had the dress arrived on Saturday morning, but that she was delighted with it and wished to thank us for our good customer service. I have to say that our customer might have been relieved that the dress had arrived on time, but I'm sure she was not as relieved that it had arrived as us.

Much as we like the business, rush orders (in this case about 2.5 weeks from request to delivery) involve a lot of stress, the ignomy of not actually coming up with the goods, fills us both with nightmares. Luckily it hasn't come to this yet (touch wood), but I'm sure that something will, someday. Its making sure we do the right thing for the customer, should the worst come to the worst.

I've been sending a lot of CVs away recently and to be honest I'm surprised I haven't at least had some enquiries, just the odd "thank you for your interest, the job has been already filled" emails.

I'm not under any illusions about job agencies, but I've stopped even applying for jobs that have been advertised by MVP Search & Selection Limited as I know they keep up job descriptions, just to try and get peoples CVs. The same thing has happened with a few friends of mine so I know it is not just me. So if you want my advice give them a miss and save your valuable time they are a bunch of time wasters (specifically my time).

Got an email from one agency about a Solutions Development Managers job in Banbury for a reasonably big Logistics firm. Got sent the job description, had a telephone interview with regard to my suitability and experience, I seem to have passed that part of it and hopefully I'll find out a bit more next week from the client.

The job would probably suit me right down to the ground as it is not that far removed from what I was doing as an associate with Royal Mail Logistics Solutions (RIP), just a bit more customer facing rather than burrowed in a dark corner doing all the donkey work. I think that would suit me anyway as I'm normally pretty good at getting up to speed with new projects and dealing with new people (or so some people say anyway).

My guess is they need a lot more people to hand hold their current customers as the business has just been bought out and I'm sure those customers have options in their contracts to terminate them if the business is sold. Better to spend money now on good customer relations than lose a lot of work over a quite trivial amount of money (although not trivial to me).

What's the odds of having two cars have exactly the same problem? Probably not so low, say 20-1, well what's the odds of two cars having the same two problems? Not being a mathematician I'll say 20x20 = 400-1.

Well both of our cars had the same two problems:

• Blown exhaust
• Broken window washer pump

Maybe it is something to do with Peugeots, but I don't think so. Wouldn't mind so much, but the value of the 405 is probably about £50 and the repairs cost £130 odd.

I can't really complain about my 106 Rallye though as thats the first exhaust I have paid for since I got the car in July 1998 (did have the Catlyst replaced within 5 months and I think the exhaust may have been replaced entirely just before the 12 month warranty ran out).

Just have to get around to taxing and insuring one of the cars now, and I can't remember who I was insured with (its been a while). Wonder who I should contact about that to get my no claims bonus?

First we had a dander with Taz and she walked slower than I do (and that's saying something) and within the last few days she has started to do a bit of a canter while chasing Turbo. Turbo of course gallops away leaving her for dead, but game little girl that she is, she tries her best.

Taz has even started to develop a waist, so I think the raw feeding is going pretty well and she hasn't had any funny turns lately either. So her diet is either doing her some good or our timing is getting better (which I very much doubt).

Her eyes are still pretty bloodshot at times, despite the cream we put in her eyes. So a visit to the vet next week is on the cards, she doesn't seem to worry at her eyes or rub them, but better to be safe than sorry.

This Afternoon

I've been having terrible trouble with the dogs barking when they know they are going to the park, Turbo gets wildly exicited and gives a bark or two. This barking then starts of Taz who can't bark very well for the first 10 or so barks and then she doesn't quit, this then starts Turbo off barking even more, and Turbos bark is very, very loud.

My strategy so far is to frustrate the dogs exicitement if they are barking, rather than shouting at them to keep quiet (doesn't work). The frustration I introduce is to stop the car moving towards the park and turn off the engine until the dogs quieten down. I then start the car again and if they start to bark I switch the engine off again until they quieten down again. So far I'm stopping about 8 times or so rather than the 15 or so the first time.

Having got the hounds to the park, Taz needed a lot of encouragement to complete the outward loop we take, but there was no problem on the car-ward bound loop, its as if she pumps up her chest and gets her elbows working to barge past anything in her way. Of course there was not a peep out of them coming home (not that there ever is).