09.22.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:56 pm by GaZ
I hope all of y’all over there in Texas are well and prepared for anything that comes from that there breeze that’s blowin’ yer way.
When I first heard of Rita I didn’t think much of it… I was just thinking it was media-hype being whipped up because of the chaos caused by Katrina. But better safe than sorry, I suppose. By the time of landfall the storm is predicted to fall to a category 3 level with windspeeds of 130mph, which is slightly less than the big one back in 1900 which killed thousands of people, but still fast enough to cause mucho destruction.
The Houston Metblog is providing regular updates on the happenings in the area. According to inside sources (read: Hesam): gas (petrol) stations are running out of supplies (uhoh! Texans without gas?!? Time to dust off those bicycles!), traffic is terrible on all the freeways out of Houston, and worst of all: “WHATABURGER WAS EVEN CLOSED LAST NIGHT”. Mind you, this doesn’t look too different from normal Houston rush-hour traffic:
The latest predictions put Rita’s trail of destruction as passing just east of Houston. Let’s hope they’re right and the amount of damage caused is as low as possible. I’ve got my fingers crossed for y’all.
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09.21.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:31 pm by GaZ
As usual, there isn’t much happening around here. We seem to be in a bit of a quiet patch in the blogosphere, so I guess I’ll just have a bit of a rant and a ramble, and you’ll have an excuse to waste a few more minutes of your day.
Although she hasn’t mentioned anything on her blog, Hanne has gone back to Norway for a bit of R&R (note: at the time of writing her latest post is referring to our PREVIOUS trip to Norway a couple of weeks ago). I don’t know how much of her current situation she wants me to talk about here, so i’ll wait for her to say it herself, but just to quell the conspiracy theorists among you:
- No, we have not broken up.
- No, she’s not sick
- No, she’s not dying
- No, she’s not joining the army
So, back to talking about ME (it’s my blog, after all ;-))… well, last weekend I went down to London to visit Nikolai and help him move from his lush apartment near Marble Arch to his new (undoubtedly lush) apartment down the road… in the end we just ended up eating and drinking way too much and doing very little moving whatsoever because the monkey forgot that he didn’t get the keys to his new place until Monday. We did get some time to drop by the Apple store near Oxford circus to check out the new iPod nano (it’s really, really tiny!!). Nikolai even managed to show a little self-restraint for once and didn’t buy one on the spot.
This week is just another week at work. On the 27th i’ll have been working at Perceptive for exactly one year, which is a bit of an occasion I guess, though I doubt anyone at work will recognise it apart from me and the other graduates that joined at the same time.
My ankle is slowly getting better. The swelling has all but disappeared now, but the tendons in my foot are still very tender so I guess I’ll give football another miss this week… maybe i’ll just go for a light work-out and a swim at the gym instead. So today I’ve been sitting around at home, glued to the boob-tube. Hmm… according to the Wiktionary a “boob-tube” in “UK English” means a woman’s top. I actually meant the television. 
During the usual doom & gloom on the news they also presented a story about the growing unrest over in southern Thailand. The government is blaming Thai Muslim separatists, therein becoming the target for claims of discrimination. Whoever the real terrorists are, they seem to be predominantly targetting Buddhists. All this paints a somber picture over the happy memories of my childhood from the time we spent over there. Granted we lived in Bangkok, and the only times we ever went to the south were to the more touristy places like Phuket and Koh Samui, but I still find it difficult to imagine such atrocities in such a beautiful and seemingly peaceful country. Blame it on the innocence of youth, I suppose.
Anyway, I suppose I should try and get some sleep now. Tomorrow is another day.
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09.16.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:21 am by GaZ
This is a few days old, but all I have to say is: hahahahahahaha
I can sympathise 
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09.09.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:48 pm by GaZ
Clumsy old me took a rather painful fall last night while playing football… I was just running along backwards when I stumbled, there was a nasty crack, I stumbled a bit more, then fell flat on my arse. The worst part is I wasn’t even anywhere near the ball! I was in quite a bit of pain by the time I got home, but come morning I couldn’t even walk. So one quick trip to (followed by a looooong wait in) City Hospital A&E and I end up back at home with a sexy support stocking to cover the blob that is my injured foot (the swelling increased dramatically overnight making it look like I have a case of elephantiasis).
DOH!
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09.04.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:49 am by GaZ
Hanne and I have returned from our trip to Norway. It was, as usual, a very relaxing and laid-back affair. On the first day we went to see Elin compete in a horse riding competition (she rides Icelandic horsies which have a very distinctive trot, lifting their hooves in a very “posh” manner… I guess you just have to see them to know what i’m on about). That evening, Hanne, her mum and I visited Hanne’s grandparents up in Hamar and once again stayed by the shores of lake Mjøsa for a couple of days, before returning to Skjetten. The rest of the week was spent entertaining Bajas (Elin’s new pup, as featured on Hanne’s blog recently) and dozing around the house. We met up with Stian and his Hanne in Oslo one evening for pizza, drinks and darts (i’m still not sure how Stian managed to get a dart up there), and on the final evening Hanne had a girls night out with her friends while I babysat her parents for her And then, just as quickly as the week had begun, it was over and time to return to Birmingham.
This apartment is depressing me more and more every time I return to it. It’s just too small! But there’s a (currently somewhat dim) light on the horizon! We’ve handed in our notice and we shall be out of this place by October 19th. The only problem is we don’t yet have anywhere to go. The problem with letting agencies is that they deal with things in the very short term, so although we’re looking at houses now most of them won’t be available in a week or two, which means we’ll really only have a couple of weeks to view/rent one towards the end of this month. Oh well… we’ll get by.
The photo gallery from the trip is, as usual, in the Gallery.
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