Arcoarena

It’s quite hot here. The temperature’s been up as high as 25 degree C and it’s meant to be around 30 inland. The weekend was quite hot too. Joanne’s back from Morrocco and was complaining it was cold but with temperatures of 40 in Fez I can hardly blame her.

Anyway, what do I decide to do on one of the hottest days this year? That’s right, go for a 3 1/2 mile run. My God, that was difficult, and slow. All I can say is that I hope it gets cooler before the next time we go.

It’s quite hot here. The temperature’s been up as high as 25 degree C and it’s meant to be around 30 inland. The weekend was quite hot too. Joanne’s back from Morrocco and was complaining it was cold but with temperatures of 40 in Fez I can hardly blame her.

Anyway, what do I decide to do on one of the hottest days this year? That’s right, go for a 3 1/2 mile run. My God, that was difficult, and slow. All I can say is that I hope it gets cooler before the next time we go.

Well things are coming along. Following a busy week last week, mainly taken up by ‘The Full Monty’ at the New Theatre Royal (you’ll be glad to know I got most of the cues right, especially the last one to the relief of the actors who rely on that cue for the audience not seeing them ‘buck naked’).

I’ve got back to painting now and I’ve finished the bedroom, so all I need to do is buy a carpet and wait for the new bed to arrive.

So two down, one to go, and then the kitchen. I’m leaving the kitchen as it’s a big job and requires lots of money (hopefully we’ll get Christmas bonuses so I can pay for it). The next room is the living room which somebody decided to paint an odd blue colour, so that’ll take quite a few coats to get rid of.

On the horizon we have the final of the sailing race. It’s two ’round the cans’ races and one lap of the Isle of Wight, hopefully this time we’ll get all the way round.

I went along to help with a fit-up at the New Theatre Royal this saturday (The Full Monty, produced by HumDrum). It reminded me of a dramsoc fit-up as it involved hanging lots of lights of scaff and trying to cable it neatly. I’m going to be board-op on Friday night as the LD has to go to the States on business
Anyhow, ‘The Full Monty’ is the musical version of the film. This means several things, firstly it’s now set in America, it has songs (obviously), and it has far too many locations for a sensible play. It has to be said it was a ‘brave’ choice of musical.

The ending is true to the film though, and they do indeed do ‘the full monty’. To make this suitable viewing for all the plan is to use a combination of pyro and a blackout to protect the actors modesty. One reservation I have is that the theatre is a slightly odd layout. The stage area burnt down and the stage got rebuilt infront of the proscenium-arch into what would have been the front half stalls. This means that the actors can almost shake hands with the people at each end of the dress circle. The people at the sides of the dress and upper circles are viewing side-on so I don’t know how much they will get to see.

My main concern is that both the pyro and the blackout are controled from the lighting desk. So I might be quite nervous towards the end of Friday night’s performance.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve said anything here. Perhaps because a lot of what I’ve been doing is in many ways mundane. I’ve been painting and patching up holes in the walls, this has required me handing over vast amounts of money to B&Q but in return I have got a few power tools now .

We’ve almost settled into the house but I suspect it will be a while until we feel fully settled because at the moment the bedroom is being decorated then I need to do a fair bit to the living room so we’ve got quite a long time until everything will be in it’s final place.

I’ve finally entered the digital age and bought myself a freeview box. The main difference between analogue and digital is that you can watch the same episode of Friends several times a night if you have digital.

I have obviously been splashing out recently (it was my birthday though) as I’ve bought cleats and shoes for my bike. Unlike Gary I haven’t fallen off yet but I suspect the roads of Portsmouth are slightly less treacherous than the hills of Scotland….slightly.

What else?…..erm….not much probably. Jo (Andrea’s sister) is in Morocco improving her Arabic and needless to say I’m very jealous.

Well, myself and Andrea are now proud owners of a 2-bed terraced house in Southsea. It’s a little odd moving from a rented flat to a house with a mortgage (I logged on to my internet banking to see a new Mortgage section with a huge negative number by it).

Having exchanged contracts, completed and moved over the weekend all the worries about things going wrong or being delayed (and having to find somewhere to live as our tenancy on the flat runs out this week) disappear. In their place are a whole new set of worries like, ‘is that damp’ and how on earth to get the washing maching out of the front room and into its rightful place. Sunday morning was filled with removing doorhandles, doors, washing machines, and part of the kitchen cabinets in order to get the washing machine to the rear of the house where it can actually be used.

It’s nice to have a place where you can actually consider making changes, the downside of this was an expensive trip to B&Q and the promise of many more to come.

Anyhow, all that DIY will give me something to do in the evenings. The other surprising outcome of all this is the clock on the living room wall. I’ve owned that clock for almost a year and a half now and it’s been attached to the wall of both of the flats that we lived in since we moved down to Portsmouth. For the first time on Saturday I actually heard it ticking. Hurrah for lack of road noise.

Well, summer is almost here. So close are those long summer days that I’ve had to buy a pair of cycling shorts. I’ve not quite had the courage to wear them yet though.
Other good things are: ‘The Now Show’ is now available as a podcast from the BBC. I’m buying a house (might have mentioned that before), I’ve got a week’s holiday in may (yay), but I think I’m going to have to use it for DIY (boo).

Anyhow, life’s good, hope everyone else’s is.

Well, everything seems to be going quite quickly now. I’ve just transferred a horribly large amount of money to the solicitors. All the searches have come back with nothing scary to report.

We’ve agreed a date for completion in just two and a bit weeks time.
Better start packing.

Well my throw-away comment in my last post of ‘oh and I might buy a house’ appears to have come true. I’ve had an offer accepted for a 2-bed terraced house just round the corner. The mortgage is now sorted (a lot easier than one would expect) and the solicitors have been instructed (a lot slower than expected). So all that’s left is to read everything that gets sent to me, sign it and return it to the appropriate place.

The survey is happening tomorrow so barring any major issues the difficult bits should be over (I hope). I hope I’ve got past the awkard bit now, I really don’t like the fact that houses don’t have a fixed price and that the price indicated is generally higher than the final selling price. It’s also a bit rubbish that there’s a good 2 months worth of solicitors messing around with searches and god knows what else before the sale is even legally binding, let alone being able to move in.

I am looking forward to a few things that will hopefully make all this hassle worth it. I quite like the idea of having a second bedroom so that any visitors don’t have to sleep on the floor. Having central heating will be good too. Both our current flat and the previous one had electric heaters, they’re expensive and rubbish. I’m also looking forward to having a garden in which I can sit out in the cool summer evenings, drinking wine and listening to the radio. We also get a separate dining room rather than a lounge/diner and (as if that weren’t enough to make you explode with excitement) we get stairs, something I haven’t had in my living areas for a few years now.
There are some downsides though. This morning Andrea said “If we’ve moved in by mid-may we could use that holiday we’re taking to do some painting”, somewhere the idea of a week camping in France got squished by the ominous picture of endless trips to B&Q.

Well, I haven’t said much recently. Partly becuase I haven’t got much to say (though I’m not sure that’s stopped me before).

Work’s quite busy, though much regression testing means I’m doing the same bits of testing again and again. It’s a rubbish bit of the project. Nothing new is going to happen, the feature set is fixed. All that’s left is tidying up the mess made by feature creep and various compatability issues between code, hardware enclosures etc. Many bugs but very few challenges unfortunately. I don’t really feel I can talk much about work as it’s all commercial stuff and I don’t want to get fired or anything. Not that any insider knowledge helps predict what will happen to the share price.

As I was saying, not much has happened. I bought some new tyres for my bike (Continental Grand Prix 4000, no less) and I haven’t had a puncture yet. New brake blocks are next and they’re currently making a disturbing metal-on-metal sound and not doing a whole heap of slowing down.

Oh, and I’m thinking of buying a house/flat/cupboard depending upon what I can afford. I’m hoping to look round a few in Southsea this Saturday so we’ll have to see. I guess I’m lucky to be outside London.