Pile of Dross

You look out of the window and exclaim that those clouds look very dark and ominous - only to realise its a mountain range.

Yes, I’ve made it to CERN safe and sound. It only took 1 hour to get to Heathrow from Didcot - I’m sure its taken 90 minutes previous times. Got pulled out for an x-ray scan as well, but other than got through the security checks without too much hassle, and then spent the best part of 2 hours wandering Terminal 4.

Plane left on time, and arrived on time, though the buses in Geneva had changed where they stopped from the last time I was here. Got pass for site, but I think something has got confused somewhere as I’m not sure its the correct one, but I’m only here for one night so probably won’t be a huge problem. I’m in building 39, rather than building 38 which I’ve been in all other times, so I’ve actually got wireless access in my room this time.

Parents came, parents went. Didn’t take them to the BBQ, thanks for asking :-p. I was never seriously considering it, and the weather was a bit rubbish on Saturday, so we had a meal in the Fleur-de-Lys in East Hagbourne.

Two days off and I actually managed to do stuff rather than just baking in the heat (maybe that should be despite in place of rather).

For the first time in four years I’ve actually learnt the name of one of my neighbours - he followed me to the barbers on Wednesday and we chatted a bit (not much as my lack of smalltalk is renowned). And as can be guessed from the previous sentence I also got a haircut - no exciting first to relate there though.

Next first - I went to Wantage; if there’s every a competition for the Town name that really should be a word, Wantage will be getting my vote. Its definately nicer than Didcot - several pubs that looked reasonable and actual activity in the town centre, unlike the ghost town Didcot sometimes is (though less so with the new town centre).

‘Nother first : Rode a bike for first time in over a decade. Not, admittedly, far - couple of times round a (small) car park, but enough to convince myself that I can still ride a bike - I did once forget how to tie my shoelaces (damn you velcro fasteners) so it wasn’t a given. Long division - forgot how to do that as well at one point.

Almost inevitable first after the previous one: Bought a bike, a Trek 7200(What is it with Bike manufacturers and these generic names? Somewhere there’s a Marketing person weeping at the inability to generate brand name recognition). Delivered , yes delivered I want to rebuild confidence and get an idea of my endurance/stamina, some point next week.

Disclaimer - My iBook Dashboard BBC Weather widget is claiming that the current (3am) temperature is 18 degreesC, so any bizarre ramblings above are probably the result of heatstroke, dehydration and lack of sleep because its too fricking hot. 18?!!?, that’s height of summer temperature where I’m from, not middle of the bl**dy night.

Pandammonium » Blog Archive » A message…

Oh dear, I foresee an day of “You’ll be next.” comments in my future.

And I’ve just done my bulk occasion card buying for this year too, some people - no sense of timing, never thinking about others, grumble grumble grumble.

Congratulations, C & C.
:-)

Today I got :

• My payslip showing that I’m getting my 12 months of backdated payrise + sweetner for it taking so long = an extra 400ukp this month
• A key to the housing estate bike shed(s)

Coincidence?

Now I’m wondering if I can make it to Oxford and back to look at bikes on Saturday before being stoned as a heretic for not being in front of a tv at 3pm or whenever it is.

When things aren’t going well (and at work things aren’t going particularly great) its helpful to take stock of the things you have accomplished, so today I’ve :

Cleaned these particular boots for the first time I can remember

Found the setting that stops my samba password expiring every 30 days

Wrote the letter to get a key to my housing estate’s bike locker

Activated a credit card

Bought a handful of cds

I’ve finally got around to doing something with the Flickr account I’ve had for ages - I’ve uploaded the best photo I took last year at my cousin’s wedding. It was really a test of the FlickrExport plugin for iPhoto. When I say its the best photo, I mean that everyone’s looking the right way, its in focus, well light, no fingers in the way etc. The actual subject matter’s pretty grotesque :-).

Those of you actually come to the website to read this drivel may have noticed the thumbnails at the bottom of the sidebar which is provided by FAlbum, a wordpress plugin.

This me trying to incentivise myself to use my damn digital camera more.

Pandammonium/Pseudo-brother-in-law

Yes, I went and visited the family member with the least ability to annoy me. (Actually that’s not strictly true, but less annoying ones tend to be accompanied by more annoying ones, IYSWIM)

I’m really not sure what more Caity expected of a meeting between me and Colin - she’s been at previous ones and this one was pretty typical. It suffices to say that he started it. :-p

“Pseudo-brother-in law”. Scary.

Phew, one bumper work update that was. (Or is, if you’re reading these reverse chronologically, you freak you)

So what have I done that’s not work related? I’ve joined the e-Science Department Recreational Society, which sounds more formal than it really is - playing Halo on networked x-boxes using multiple data projectors.

Also, I was in the pub with some people from work and we stumbled upon a pub quiz, we were there again this week, but didn’t win anything either time - though my apparent encyclopediac knowledge of tv and film does appear to be worrying some people - particularly me :-)!

I’ve bought my first piece of furniture in 3.5 years - a 2m tall dvd storage tower, freeing up much needed bookcase space for… books. The stack on top of my main bookcase is now down to one deep instead of 3 deep.

Apparently inspired by my posting of my best man’s speech for his wedding, Graeme has put out the
call for blog posts about his wedding which reminded me that I had noted down some thoughts before I went to sleep afterwards, but never got round to posting, so once more with the blockquoting:

Post wedding -

At last the nightmare ends - bloody speech is given. Spent goodly amounts of time chatting to various folks I see even less than the people I see occasionally, and spent a even more goodly amount of time chatting to them too.

I do have to wonder whether there’s a genetic imperative for Scotsmen to sing and dance like a complete loon when nicely drunk, either that or I’m less of a curmudgeon than I let on - the only two explanations why me and ColinD seemed so in sync with each other.

Several people came up to me beforehand and told the speech would be fine, that everyone’s on my side etc etc etc, but I am a natural worrier, so these words while comforting to my conscious mind really did little to ease the subconscious icy ball that had taken up residence in my stomach.

Choosing to go with the “saying nice things about the groom in slightly twisted way” speech rather than the more traditional “make groom out to be complete imbecile” speech which had been crafted after much study of internet websites turned out to be the smartest gut instinct I’ve ever had. It fitted nicely in with what the Father (and Mother) of the bride said (by pure luck) - certainly one of the jokes in the ‘nasty’ speech would have fallen flat, as the incident had already been set out in a much nicer light already and I think the whole tone would have been wrong - one of the themes of the the FotB speech was how worthy the Groom was to marry the Bride - jarring to paint a picture of him as a buffoon after that.
The speech was possibly a touch too short or possibly I was going too fast - but I wasn’t aware of me gabbling - which I normally am- so short is more plausible. Still I’ve never seen so many people laugh so heartily at the word ‘Graeme’ before. And I didn’t muck up my toast, so that’s somewhat of a relief - always a danger, I think, of people toasting the wrong thing at the wrong time.

So advice for future best men:
Either be aware of what the Father of the Bride is going to say, or don’t be too nasty about the groom. The general lesson is work out how the speech fits into the evening - you’re typically last to talk so have to tread carefully and should probably avoid anecdotes that have already been mentioned.
Cue the audience when you want them to do things and once they’re cued get to what you cued them for sharpish, avoid all digressions and
asides or don’t wave your toasting glass around while doing so, as some people may be cueing off of the raising of the glass more than what you’re saying.
Short and pithy is probably better than long and drawn out - a short speech with a few jokes will go down better than a long speech with the same number of jokes.
People will laugh where and for how long they feel like it, don’t force it along or look upset if its not going quite how you anticipated - go with the flow - but they will try to find the funny if its well signposted enough - even if the punchline is not that funny - its a genuine friendly audience - you’d have to work really hard to alienate them.
Bride is best thing since sliced bread - no one in their right mind is going to disagree with someone complimenting the bride on her wedding day, but too much might look a bit odd.
In fact in general saying nice things about people is a good road to take.
And the final advice for future best men: don’t take the job in the first place, go along to the reception and (quietly) laugh at the poor sod who did agree to do it and generally have a good time - its so much less stress.