3 more months

the head of the department told me this morning that my contract is going to be renewed for another 3 months so that takes me up to the end of october and mean that i will have been in the same job for 9 months. 9 whole months!!. thats a very very long time for me given my recent history. i also know which days i will be able to take my holiday so its time to get that booked as well.

am toying with the idea of going to chicago for a few days as its supposed to be a great city and also because two of my favourite films were set in chicago, ferris beullers day off and the blues brothers and one the great historical baseball stadiums, wrigley field is there. thats not much of a reason to go but i don't need much of a reason.

today i have mostly been watching mark cavendish and the columbia HTC boys smoke the rest of the field on the champs elysee. this is awesome. if this doesn't make you want to put on your lycra, shave your legs and pump yourself full of supplements, there is something wrong with you.

rabbit heart

the start of another week. am not on earlies which is always good and i feel better for it, although it doesn't change the fact that i am struggling to concentrate at work. i need a break. arrgghh!!!.

watched the last couple of stages of the tour de france and it was wicked. mark cavendish is a monster sprinter. no one can get near him. have never seen anyone win a sprint on the champs elysee by such a huge margin. i really want to hurry up and but another bike, and have extra motivation because it takes so long taking the bus on the weekends. its such an ordeal getting to the gym these days.

i went to see a bike made by felt, but it had size 700 wheels and they are too big and just don't look right. i don't like the look of bikes with 700 size wheels, unless they are road racing bikes. i found another bike by GT that has 26" wheels which looks much nicer and better proportioned. 26's are how i roll playa!.

killed it at the gym on sunday. i always try and push to my maximum but somedays i go a little bit beyond. yesterday was one of those days and i am a little sore today.

still no news if my contract gets extended or not. friday will be my last day if they don't extend it. i should be worried but i am not in the slightest. i couldn't be any less worried if i tried. will look to get out of dodge if i don't get renewed and then get another contract upon returning....to dodge.....if i don't get renewed at this place.

the weather is shit as usual. dark skies and rain showers. its shit here. i wish i was somewhere else. this week i will definitely book my ticket to the states, once i found out what my situation is. thats a promise.

and now something completely random. fashions. london is a very fashionable city and every season you see a new trend, particularly amongst the ladies. it could be combat trousers like it was a couple of years ago, or its ugg boots or its fur coats or whatever. this year there are quite a few people wearing those shiny skin tight black leggings. a friend of mine was even wearing them a couple of weeks ago and they are so shiny and tight that they look like they could be made from rubber or leather, but they aren't. lots of girls are wearing them with short skirts and high heels these days and worn correctly with the right outfit they look quite smart and stylish.

anyways, the other day i was walking down the street in soho, and london being the freak infested city it is, i saw a fat guy wearing shiny skin tight leggings and he was wearing them with a black frilly shirt, like something a victorian dandy would wear. he looked so fucking ridiculous it was actually funny and i had to bite my lip and look away as i walked past him, because i would have burst out laughing. i wish i had taken a pic but i don't think i would have been able to hold them camera still, long enough to take a properly focused photo.

just to be clear, girls in tight black shiny leggings = stylish. guys in shiny black leggings = knob head, soho, fashion victim thats got it badly wrong.

today i have mostly been listening to florence and the machine - rabbit heart. wicked tune. look after yourself V.

chappelle

was watching chappelles show on my mp3 player this morning on the train. had to turn it off because it was too funny and i think i looked a little mad to all the other commuters as i was laughing to myself. i know its old but it really was a great show. i'm rick james bitch!.

solo

i checked on the interweb on saturday to see if i could get tickets for nine inch nails in los angeles, but they were sold out. there are a couple of shows left but i think they will sell out in no time as they are not very big venues. if 15,000 people turned up to see them in london i doubt they will have much trouble selling a few thousand tickets when they play the hollywood palladium, which is less than half the size of the o2 arena. i got to see them recently anyways and i saw them last year in knoxville so i have been very fortunate.

on the subject of bands, i was in the gym yesterday and they constantly played u2. some of the new stuff which is shit, but occasionally some of the older stuff which is very good. anyways, they hardly ever play u2 in the gym and its mosly dance music or pop. i went over to the video screens and noticed that it was all part of being sponsored by blackberry and everytime a video came on it would have the blackberry logo on it. i nearly threw up. what a bunch of corporate sell outs allowing their back catologue to be used to sell mobile email cell phones.

.....and then to top it off, i saw that u2 were playing in chicago and thought i would see if there were any tickets. i used to be a big fan (before they became corporate sell outs). there were tickets available but they cost $250. i couldn't believe it. who charges $250 for a concert in a staduim?. corporate money grabbing sell outs, thats who!!. you would have though it was in a box or something but it wasn't. it was a regular seat in the stands.

anyways on the subject of corporate sellouts, its me on my own at work today. actually thats not fair. i would be a corporate sell out if i still worked in investment banks, but i chose to leave. ( i will go back in a few months though), my boss is on holiday and the girl that works in my department has taken a long weekend. thanks for leaving me on my todd to get swamped.

they still haven't told me if my contract is going to be extended and it officially ends in 11 days time. one doesn't want to count ones chickens and all that, but they have planned some work for me to do in august so i assume they want to keep me.

weekend was quiet. nothing special at all. saved my money which i will then use in the states in september. went to the gym and pushed it pretty hard on sunday. did a stint on the exercise bikes as i need to keep some resistance in my legs since i don't cycle these days. will pop down to evans cycles one day after work and see if they have the bike i want, in stock. i just need to try it for size before i buy it. need to get a good fit. i don't want to get it and then find out that its a tiny bit too long or short and it gives me shoulder or neck ache.

weather is absolutely shit, as it has been for a couple of weeks now. rain and dark skies. it looks like february outside. 10 days of sunshine. thats all we got so far this year. what a rip off. i want my money back.

am on earlies this week. i will get more and more tired with each passing day. there's something to look forward to. :-)

today i have mostly been listening to maximo park - books from boxes. take care flower.

NIN/JA in london

i went to see nine inch nails and janes addiction play last night at the o2 arena, and they were awesome. janes came on stage around 7.30 and started with a 15 minute version of the epic song, 3 days. its a bit of an odd choice to start with because its a long slow song and is more the kind of thing you would end a concert with but it was just incredibly good. the band played very well and perry farrell pranced around the stage in the way that he does and dave navarro is still the coolest rockstar in the world.

after they had finished there was a pause of about a half hour and then nine inch nails came on and as usual they came out fast and with energy. not that you will get much chance to see them anymore, but i imagine seeing a nine inch nails performance is probably like surviving a plane crash or an earthquake, because of the sheer exhileration that you are alive to experience it. they always give 100% and are unbelievably good in a live show and everything else seems tame in comparison. trent has sung 'hurt' and 'terrible lie' a thousand times before, but you would never know it judging by the enthusiasm he has when he performs them. they also had a special guest and gary newman came out to do a couple of songs, most notably, cars, which is a wicked tune. trent also played 'i'm afraid of americans' which was a song he originally did for david bowie but rarely performs himself.

anyways, it all finished at 11 and despite the fact that the trains were packed and it was a bit of hassle to get home it was well worth it. i might be in LA when NIN play their last shows for quite some time, if ever again, and i will try and get some tickets if i can.

today i have mostly been listening to mazzy star - into dust. look after yourself V

its always the way

right, well i was already to book my ticket to the states on friday. i mentioned it to my boss and the girl that works in my team and said i was going to take the first couple of weeks of september off. the girl then said she might need to take the first couple of weeks of september off. i asked if she had booked anything yet and she said she hadn't and that she wasn't sure if she was going to go.

i felt like saying....oh, ok, well i am sure that i want to go so i think i might go ahead and book it and if its not good for you, well tough shit. i didn't say it. my boss was a bit vague about giving me the go ahead as well and its a bit of a gamble to book it before the time off has been cleared.

oh and 2 more things. my boss has gone on holiday for 2 weeks so i can't ask him now, and it also got announced that nine inch nails are playing their final ever shows in los angeles in the first week of september and which out of sheer luck, i was hoping to be in LA then. seeing as i have not take a single day off since i started in this place, and not a single day off since september 29th last year, i think i will give it a day and then just book it. they can deal with the consequences. my boss can run the place on his own for a couple of weeks if he has to. i have done a few days on my own here when both of them have been off.

will also look to buy a new bike. what with some trains out of action on the weekends and having to take buses, its takes me almost 3 times as long to get to the gym on the weekends. its a massive inconvenience and aside from that, i can feel my fitness decreasing. i have my eye on a bike made by felt. if its good enough for bradley wiggins and david millar and christian van der velde, its good enough for me.

today i have mostly been listening to trip - river phoenix. i think i don't like the video. scroll the page down so you can't see it and just listen to the song, which is very good.

take care flower.

sleepyhead

had written a post but didn't publish because it was too much of a downer. let just sum it up by saying it involved 3 seperate stories of people i know that and it involved death, prison and relationship breakdown. i might write about them in later posts but having them all in one was a bit too much.

anyways, the weather has gone shit again. grey skies, showers and its definitely not t-shirt weather. normal service resumed. you would think that i would have booked my ticket to cali but for some strange reason that even i can't understand, i haven't. i must be some kind of idiot or something and you know what will happen next. i will be ready to book it but when i check it, all the prices will be double what they are now and i will be pissed off.

work is ok but i have been on earlies this week and its been progressively harder to get out of bed in the morning. only one more day to go.

have been watching a lot of the tour de france on tv. it just makes me want to get out on my bike, but i can't because some fuck-head stole it. can you tell i am still bitter about it?. here is some inspiration below from a couple of years ago when the first couple of stages were in london. this man is flying and the way he takes some of those turns is incredible.

nothjing else of note going on. i have football tonight and it should be good. the one tiny miniscule good thing about cooler weather is that its better to play football in. it was very difficult last week.

i got a couple of calls about a job at a bank yesteday. it sounds really good but i have only been at my current place for 5 months and i don't want to get a reputation as someone who jumps ship every few months and it won't look good on my resume if they see i just walk out on jobs mid-contract. anyways, i will wait a few more months. if my current job extend me for another 3 months that will be perfect and set me up nicely for the end of the year.

today i have mostly been listening to passion pit - sleepyhead. this is music to lift spirits.

take care V. xx

untitled

work has been quiet today but thats a good thing because i have been dealing with accountants and financial matters as its the end of the quarter and i have to get all my documents in order for my taxes. anyways, out of all the emails bouncing backwards and forwards, i got told that it looks like i might have paid too much tax and should get some money back. some people are checking things and will get back to me. hopefully that is the case and i get a nice cheque in the post. that, as they say, would be a touch.

anyways, got football tonight for the first time in a month and i think its the hottest day of the year so far today. can't wait to play.

nothing else happening. i was just looking for an excuse to post this next song. today i have mostly been listening to interpol - untitled. it is unbelievably good.

catastrophic failure

am working with a team that are doing a SAP implementation. its some big complicated bit of software that i don't know anything about. yesterday they asked me to apply a service pack to one of their servers and it failed with the error message 'catastrophic failure'. i thought that was quite a funny error message that you don't see from other vendors. usually its just a blue screen of random numbers or just something that says something like ERROR:837490, which you then have to look up on google and in forums and you end up finding out that its fucked.

it turned out it was actually catastrophic because it completely broke everything and the application completely stopped working.

luckily i was working in a virtual machine and was able to roll back to a snapshot i had taken and everything is fine now.

other companies should start making error messages like that as well i think. 'you are screwed!' or 'not going home this evening because you have to reinstall this shit again' or 'hope you like the song nightshift by the commodores son, because you are going to be doing it'. i can still remember once at a previous job when i went to the datacenter and saw a guy turn up with his laptop and cables and a pillow. you are know you are screwed when you have to take a pillow.

anyways work is going ok. the weather is awesome this week. hot hot hot and then a bit hotter.

today i have mostly been listening to the script - talk you down. they played it at my gym last night. can't find the video anywhere so its one of those lyrics things they post on youtube. soz.

look after yourself flower.