Year: 2008
-
My Glittering Second Career
I have a bad habit of writing in books. Only textbooks, and only my own books, but it’s still a bad habit. I highlight key passages, make notes in the margins, and underline important concepts. I even cross out bits I disagree with. I know that you shouldn’t deface books (lord knows I had my knuckles rapped for it often enough at school) but I read a lot of textbooks, and this makes it easier to find back key information when I’m looking for it. Plus, I find I actually retain more of what I read this way. An extension of this (and… Read more
-
Wart: A Palaver
I’m currently bed-ridden. Or at least sofa-ridden. Yesterday I underwent major surgery and I’m now convalescing at home. Actually, major surgery may be stretching it a bit – I had a verruca (or plantar wart, as they call them here) removed. But for all the palaver they made over it, it may as well have been major surgery. It all started out simply enough with a very small verruca on the ball of my left foot. Finn had a couple of them recently (so I know where it came from…) and we managed to freeze his off at home, in… Read more
-
Gimme Back My Donuts
Apparently my social skills aren’t quite as refined as I thought they were.  I thought I’d been rather convincing as a ‘regular guy’ when I accompanied Finn on his last scout weekend away, but he just had another one, and this time the wife announced that she’d be taking Finn, and not me. Actually it may not be entirely down to my unavoidably-antisocial nature: when I asked the wife if she wanted me to dig out the tent again she replied “Um, no. We’re staying in a hotel”. I guess I drew the short straw there, then. And the straw got shorter still when I… Read more
-
New Adventures in Cubeland
I just started a new job. This is for the same company, just on a new project (my fifth SAP implementation…), and meant another office move. Up to now, every change of project has meant a change of continent (Belgium > Singapore > U.S.A > Belgium > U.S.A) so I was relieved this time to only move to a new building on the same ‘campus’ (as they like to call it, to make you feel like you’re back in college). But what a difference. This new location is more of a change than any of the previous moves. I was previously… Read more
-
Loitering with intent
Last weekend my integration into polite society took another step forward, as I took Finn on his first Scout camp-out. This, the wife  reasoned, would be something fun for Finn, and would also give me the ‘opportunity’ to socialize with some of the other dads. The wife normally takes Finn to the weekly scout meetings so why it is necessary for me to get involved too, I don’t know. That said, I have met some of them before and some are actually alright (Mr. Tim), so I guess there are worse people to spend time with. Plus, going with Finn… Read more