My uncool hobby strikes again

Remember I said I was going to start an embroidery of the new house, to add to my collection? Well, I finished it ages ago, around the beginning of November. My Mum had the frame at her house, so the plan was to take the finished article up to them at Christmas and get my Dad to frame it. 20 minutes into the journey from hell (Rob describes it better than I do), having already been diverted off the usual road because of an accident, I realised I'd left it at home. So I brought the frame back with me and framed it myself this evening. I hope I didn't do too bad a job of it - the back doesn't look as good as when Dad does it, but who's going to see the back when it's hanging on the wall??

Anyway, here's the subject matter: -


And here's my interpretation, with a lot of help on the pattern from Mum (i.e. she drew it!!): -

Operation Ship-Shape

Happy New Year! We took Chinese and Thai food round to Adrian and Sara's last night, then played a charades-style game called Masquerade that Rob won - just. It was really difficult! It wasn't just a case of mime the title of a well-known TV show or film - it wasn't even a case of mime a well-known phrase. These were just sentences, that made only grammatical sense - Rob had '101 ways to cook a halibut' and I had 'A frog getting legless in France', for goodness' sake! It was good fun, though - we'll look out for it next time we're shopping.

Having spent more than half of December away from home, and the rest of the days preparing for Florida and/or Christmas, the house was left in a fair old state, and it was all waiting for me when we got back yesterday :). This is what it looked like the day we left for Christmas, and it looked even worse this morning, if you can believe it. All the space you see on the floor in the living room was covered in bags we brought back from our travels. And it didn't stop there: there was laundry still in the dryer and pizza boxes in the kitchen from 2 weeks ago, the dining room was filled with wrapping paper and other Christmas-related stuff, all the bedrooms upstairs were a mess (but two of them have never actually been tidy since we moved in) - I was actually quite looking forward to being able to start getting it all in order again. I did the living room, dining room and kitchen today, and made a start on the enormous pile (actually two piles) of ironing that's built up since the beginning of December. Tomorrow I'll make a start on the upstairs.

I also have a list of other projects, some larger than others, that need doing at some point, including: -

• Re-decorate downstairs cloakroom, including new toilet and sink and new flooring, as we took the old carpet up a few weeks ago when the radiator leaked all over it
  
  
• Sort out main bathroom - there are toiletries on every surface and loads of empty cupboards
  
  
• Finally get round to sorting out the two spare bedrooms and putting away all the clutter
  
  
• Sort out the office - this is subject to our getting furniture for it. We ordered it ages ago from the same guy who furnished the company's office in Chilworth and he told us it would arrive around the end of November, but we haven't heard from him since...
  
  
• Take car to garage to sort out dubious sound to exhaust
  
  
• Fix broken slats on our bed
  
  
• Get living room carpet cleaned
  
  
• Clean or replace carpet on stairs and landing - another radiator-related incident
  
  
• Clearly the most important at the moment: get plumber to sort out central heating system
  

Good job I've got the rest of the week off to make a start on the list... :)

An Active Christmas

We arrived at the Waterhead Hotel near Ambleside in the Lake District at around 20:30 last Saturday, having driven through the densest fog we'd ever seen to get there. At one point we got to a roundabout, where there are no cats eyes in the road. Well, given that the cats eyes were the only things helping us drive in a straight line, we careered all over the roundabout until we found our exit and the cats eyes started again. On Sunday morning we went down to the restaurant and had a massive breakfast, which put paid to our plans to go running straight afterwards, but we waited an hour or so then went out. It wasn't entirely successful because the paths were really icy, but we managed to do about 4km before giving up.

On Christmas Eve we decided to go to the gym at the Low Wood, the Waterhead's sister hotel a mile down the road. We did an hour on the cross trainer and lots of stretches afterwards. We gave ourselves the day off on Christmas Day (although we did go on the Christmas morning walk with other hotel guests) and on Boxing Day we climbed Loughrigg Fell on roughly this route - we went off the track a couple of times and aren't sure exactly which way we ended up going.

Thursday we went back to the gym - I exercised while he had a massage, then he exercised while I had a facial. Very nice! But that was the end of our Christmas exercise... We drove to my parents' house on Friday morning and I mapped out a 5km route from their house that we could run each day, as there's no gym close by, but we got up yesterday and decided not to bother ;). We'll start again the day after New Year's Day.

We had a great Christmas. Rob had loads of presents to open, which he loved, and while I didn't have much to open on Christmas Day because my present this year was the piano, he did buy me a Garmin Forerunner 305 so I can track my runs better - not an inexpensive present either, and I wasn't expecting it after the piano, so that was a real surprise.

We're having a really good time here with my parents and Jen - just eating and chatting, really :). We're leaving here tomorrow morning, going back to Rob's parents' for lunch (good job because we left Grandma's present to us there last week) then driving back down to Southampton in time to go round to Adrian and Sara's for a New Year's Eve meal.

All the idiots on the road

It took us 4 hours to get from our house to James's house near Wolverhampton yesterday - usually a 2.5-hour journey - then just over 2 hours to get from there to Rob's parents' house in Manchester. There were 4 accidents on the way, every traffic light we hit was on red, and SOOOO many people drove like they'd never got in a car in their life before yesterday. One woman was attempting to turn right at a set of lights that clearly stated 'no right turn', just after that a stretch limo was taking up the entire road performing a 27-point turn, people were weaving in and out of lanes - it's a wonder there weren't more accidents, now I think of it. And I didn't even have to drive! Rob said it was the most stressful journey he'd ever done.

But we got here in one piece, and the rest of the family is coming round this afternoon for the traditional Harrop family pre-Christmas get-together. We're going to the Lakes tonight for 6 nights, then to my parents' house for 3 nights, which takes us up to New Year's Eve.

Merry Christmas!

Not the best of days...

...but equally, I don't feel nearly so annoyed by today's events as I might normally do. Not sure why that is - maybe I'm just past caring and looking forward to Christmas.

We flew back from Miami on Sunday evening, getting into Heathrow early yesterday morning. Adrian's driver was waiting for him to take him back to Southampton, but instead of going with him, Rob and I got the train into London because Rob arranged to see a client today, and I had a meeting this morning. We spent most of yesterday catching up on e-mails and sleeping. I got up early this morning and went to the gym, then turned on my computer to check what time my meeting was - and saw an e-mail from the girl I was due to meet saying she was off sick and would have to reschedule. So I'd spent the last 24 hours in London unnecessarily, and could have been at home sorting out the mounds of washing and ironing I have to do before leaving here on Friday for Christmas.

So I got the tube to Waterloo, and the train back home. I spent a few minutes sorting through a week's worth of post, then went upstairs to check out the bathroom. Hmm. In the last week all they had done was fit the toilet roll holder, towel rail and cabinet to the wall. There was still no shower head, and there were no spotlights in the ceiling, just the old lampshade. I called Tony, the Project Manager, and was told that he was off till January, but Pam told me the shower head was due to be fitted today and the electrician would be in on Thursday to sort out the lights. She did at least tell me the truth when I asked why hardly anything had happened for the past week - that she didn't know - instead of waffling away a response that didn't actually answer my question. The shower was fitted while I was out this afternoon, so that's something.

The first time we turned the heating on in this house, when it first started getting cold after the summer, we found a puddle in the kitchen - the radiator was leaking from a tiny hole in the bottom. We turned that radiator off, which means it's always cold in the kitchen now. Then the day before we went to Florida we were out all afternoon Christmas shopping, and got back to find the carpet in the downstairs toilet soaked through, because the radiator in there was leaking. This afternoon I got back to find a dirty wet patch on the carpet in the landing, and a plastic box catching drips from the radiator. The guy who came to fit the shower head noticed that this radiator was also leaking and turned it off and put the box there. Straight after New Year we'll have to get someone in to look at the whole central heating system - I have a feeling all the radiators will need replacing...

My Man the Master Orator

Rob was voted best speaker at the conference! We also found a number of blogs written by attendees complimenting him - things like "Overall it was an excellent presentation. In the future, I'll ensure I attend any of Rob's presentations, regardless of the topic", and "This was the best lecture I've ever been to. Ever!"

Well done Rob! I guess part of it is your ability not to take yourself too seriously, if this picture is anything to go by...

Air Conditioning is EVIL

My sore throat developed into a full-blown cold. I think I turned the corner at about 06:00 this morning, though, and will get better from now on. Yesterday evening I felt really rough - feet tired from standing up all afternoon, plus the usual cold-related symptoms: stuffy nose, cough, difficulty breathing, body aching etc - but today I feel a little bit better. I can feel my throaty cough becoming a chesty cough and my nose isn't quite so blocked. I still sound like a man when I speak, but I'll just have to live with that for a while...

Yesterday morning we left Melbourne and drove 160 miles down the coast to Hollywood, north of Miami, for The Spring Experience. We had a company lunch event, then afterwards, although I'm not officially working this week, I helped unpack 350 bobbleheads in the likeness of Rod, the company CEO, to give out to all the conference attendees. Rod took the gesture in the spirit in which it was intended :).

I went to bed at 21:00 last night, although I woke up at least every hour or so. This morning I've just spent a couple of hours catching up on e-mails and hanging out in the Executive Club concierge lounge - check me out - and this afternoon I think I'll go shopping :). There's a great shopping mall close to here, but I really don't want to wait till Saturday to go, because last year it was absolutely rammed on the weekend, and this year we're here a week closer to Christmas... I travelled over with a 3/4 full suitcase so I've got some room for purchases :).

Time for some more paracetamol and cough sweets.

80 Degrees in December

Rob, Adrian and I flew to Orlando on Sunday. The journey was OK - trans-Atlantic flights are never exactly pleasurable, I could live without them - but as long hauls go this one wasn't too bad at all. We rented a car to get us from Orlando to Melbourne. Mark, a colleague, had flown into Orlando from Boston, arriving a few minutes before we did, and he very kindly agreed to drive - I wasn't looking forward to driving an automatic car on the wrong side of the road having just got off a 10-hour flight.

We got to the hotel around 18:15 and stayed just long enough to freshen up before going back out for something to eat. We went to Carrabba's, an Italian place, which was very nice, but the non-Americans at the table totally forgot about US portion sizes. We ended up with enough food to feed 10 of us, not 5... and it only cost £12 each, including tip.

As is customary for me after a long-haul flight going west, I only managed to sleep until 04:30 yesterday morning. Rob woke up at 05:00, and we caught up on e-mails and looked at Google maps for a while, working out where we were in relation to the office, Ben's house, Keith's house etc, and mapping out this running route, which we ran with Adrian at 07:00 to blow away the jet lag cobwebs. Actually, Rob ran the route with Adrian; at about 7 minutes, I told them they didn't have to run slowly on my account and they immediately sprinted away from me :). I still had them in my sights for a while, as the roads were pretty straight, but after about 19 minutes I lost sight of them altogether and didn't see them again till the end.

After the guys had left to go to the Melbourne office for their meeting, I practised driving the car round the hotel car park for a couple of minutes - it didn't take long to get used to the car; now I just have to remember to drive on the right - then drove round to Keith and Keri's house and hung out with Keri, Annabelle, Corgan, Erwin, Bieke and Jill, running errands for the party Keri had organised for everyone yesterday evening. Her friend Justin came round to do the cooking and all the guys (and girl) came round after their meeting at the office; about 30 people altogether.

I felt the first signs of a sore throat yesterday afternoon and by the time we got back to the hotel last night I was definitely getting worse, so I went out to Wal-mart across the road and got some throat sweets and have been dosing myself up on them ever since. I don't feel ill in any other way; I think it's just the combination of 10 hours on a flight with recycled air, then the air conditioning drying my throat out, and I didn't drink nearly enough in the first 24 hours after I got here. Rob, on the other hand, expected it: I am on holiday, after all, and I do tend to get sick just before or during a trip away... Hopefully it won't develop into anything else.

Stupid Feet

I went to the gym this morning to do my now weekly 'long session' - an hour on the cross trainer. I had to stop after half an hour, though. Not because I was out of breath or my legs were tired, no. Because I couldn't feel my feet any more. I've mentioned before that I don't have very good circulation in my feet, and I get cramp when they get cold or when my muscles are tired, but this morning I actually bypassed the cramp stage and went straight to numbness in both feet. Rob suggested I go on the rowing machine, so I did, but I had to stop that after about 7 minutes because I was getting shooting pains across my shoulder blades, so I went onto the bike instead. I managed about 23 minutes on that before I got cramp in both feet at the same time. By then I'd actually done an hour of exercise, albeit on three machines with a little break between each, but clearly my body had decided that was the best it was going to do today. Better than nothing, I suppose...

08:45 is the new 08:00

It was still dark this morning when I left the gym to drive back home. It's usually dark when I arrive at the gym but the sun has risen by the time I leave. Today, however, I had had to get up earlier than usual to fit in going to the gym then getting home and showered in time for the bathroom fitters arriving at 08:00. So why, when they sauntered in almost an hour late, was I just pleased that they had shown up at all??? Just goes to show that if you lower expectations (see previous post about delays already suffered) your customers will just be glad to see you, and won't mind nearly so much that you've made them late for work...

I gave them the spare key before I left, and told them to lock up after themselves. They then said that they weren't doing the tiling; someone else would be coming to do that, and depending on how fast they could rip out the old fixtures, it might be ready for tiling tomorrow. I've no idea what position this leaves me in regarding the key: if they're not coming back tomorrow, they said they would post the key through the letterbox, which presumably means that I'll have to wait in again tomorrow for the tiler and be late for work two days in a row...

UPDATE 17:00: The good news is that the ripping out of the old fixtures only took a day. The bad news is that it was scheduled to take two days, and the tiler isn't available until Wednesday as he's finishing another job, so no work will be done on the bathroom at all tomorrow. The guys who were here today did at least have the sense to take the key round to the project manager, who will pass it on to the tiler on Wednesday morning.