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Some things just stick in your head It's hard to leave that much stuff behind! At university, I did a part-time student warden job to help pay the rent and the housing manager was an ex Regimental Sergeant Major. He REALLY struggled to deal with civilians who said "no" to him. It was very amusing watching him when he got annoyed as he would often get his old pace stick and march himself up and down the path outside the back of the building until he cooled down

It's a rare day that I can be bothered ironing so when I can be bothered I tend to get through at least two weeks worth of shirts. That way I can just pull out a nicely ironed one in the morning. One problem with being an ex-squaddie is that my wife's ironing is never good enough and she has been permanently banned from ironing any of my clothes. She took great offence once when I asked her if she'd ironed my shirt with a cold mess tin. That, and the fact that the few creases she puts on tend to be tramlines, means I do my own ironing. I do acknowledge that she probably did it deliberately so I would do it myself though... she learned quickly from my not so accidental culinary incompetence.

I made my first decision today as a Councillor. I increased the dog litter bin collection in one park from twice a week to three times a week. Truly an uninteresting and trivial fact. Also, I ironed 15 of my shirts tonight and finished a lovely bottle of Chablis. I'll most likely find the last 5 or so need to be re-ironed when I look at them tomorrow considering that I was feeling a bit lightheaded towards the end.

I am now a Parish Councillor

A friend lost his bike license this way, the DVLA point blank refused to admit that they were wrong and threatened to report him to the police for fraudulently misrepresenting his case. Fortunately for my friend, he passed his bike test in the Army and still had his certificates and army records. This still didn't get him his license back until he got a letter from the Army manning and records office detailing his pass record. Six months in total without being able to ride and the DVLA still refused to admit it was their fault. I do worry as it has been about 15 years since I last renewed my license and I need my car for my job.

Thankfully not me!

I got some of those passport sized photos done as I need to finally swap my paper driving license for a photocard one and also my passport is due for renewal in a few months, there were very clear instructions to not smile or show teeth (open mouth) in the photos and my wife just pointed out that I look like a war criminal in them.

The fairly gusty wind is coming from an unusual direction today meaning that I can't open my office window without having all my paperwork blown about.

Thanks for that... I might have a fiddle with some of the artsy things that come with this Mac

Just finished watching the Battle of Britain on Channel 4 HD Some films are just perfectly suited for big tellies and high definition remastering.

I am supremely thankful that this May the 4th is on a bank holiday. Too many are working days where idiot after idiot thinks it is either cool or clever to come out with "May the fourth be with you" when all I want to do is bludgeon them to pulp with a large club. That is one of the small prices to pay with working with large IT departments full of frustrated geeks.

Went for a decent walk today in the Constable country part of Suffolk/North Essex (Link to National Trust walk site, we did the 7 mile walk) and got a few pics. Now, bear in mind that I'm a complete amateur using a decent point&shoot camera (Canon Powershot S3 IS) I stuck some of the pics on one of my websites as a slideshow (linky) but these are a few of my favourites:

It went towards a beer and a curry with the wife tonight Unfortunately yes, I keep finding

I just found a

Hmmm... I've been hearing that from a fair few people off this site as well. You're not on BT Internet by any chance are you?

Good news (for me anyway): I have today off Bad news: my wife is expecting me to do a whole day worth of DIY projects and re-arranging. Yay.

Ah, your company's nanny-filter is probably blocking them... too much skin maybe! Some have functionality that assesses images for amount of skin revealed and if it is over a certain percentage it deems it not-safe. Stupid and discredited stuff but some IT security managers are gullible mugs who still buy it.

No idea, they're all showing for me. Well... those that I can see are showing anyway... no red crosses.

Congratulations

I enjoy the wildlife in our garden, from simple blue and coal #### to green- and goldfinches along with the occasional visit from the Jay and Woodpecker that live in the woods next to our house. Even the local pheasant seems to have found a friend round our way and is seen occasionally. That said, one of the wood pigeons that visits our garden needs to be careful, he's a fat knacker and is about the size of a chicken, he takes a huge run-up to get airborne meaning he's a very tempting target for our cats. Thankfully, our cats seem to be happier watching the birds rather than chasing them.

My last planned game of this RU season has been changed from a very boring friendly match to a veterans' 7 a side tournament. I've already got the missus warned that she's driving me home as I'll be having a beer or three

They're hoping to get highly paid follow-on work. Unfortunately for them, they don't know the client very well or they'd know that they'll be used with every single possible free day strung out of them then they'll be dismissed in favour of the next mug. This is one client I'll happily work for but they are also the one that I'll never budge on fees just to get a small bit of work, I know they'll never let me raise them again to my normal rate for future work.

Cassini's continuing mission

I lost out on a short, uninteresting contract today to another company who undercut me. Apparently they bid "nothing" and won't even be getting expenses. It was only a one week bit of work and won't cause my business any problems but the principle of losing work to someone who will work for free is just frightening.

Police delete tourist photos - Guardian