landslide

another week down. at this rate it will be december next time i blink and i will be looking around for a new contract, though i will be looking to book a plane ticket for a holiday before that.

work is still ok. still a little annoyed they havent given me an official PC to work on of my own, and am using the tiny but very expensive laptop for some stuff, but its my only gripe.

went out in shoreditch last on thursday night and then was out again last night in soho with some other friends. 2 late nights in a row meant i was very tired and its a good thing it was the start of the weekend. weather was also nice today. looks like we are going to see some blue sky and sunshine the next few days. we fucking need it as well.

not much else happening. am leading a very basic life of home and work and little else. cycled to the gym today and had i caught a couple of lights in time and pumped up my tyres a little more, i think my record of 15m 33s might have been in danger. i was just over 16 minutes but will try again tomorrow to beat it.

got a barbeque to go to next saturday and the football season kicks off the weekend after. a couple of guys want to go to liverpool, to see everton play, in a couple of weeks time, but my friends are lame and i imagine it will get canned, as usual. liverpool on a saturday night is a good night out though, and we haven't done it in a while.

thats all folks. have a lovely week at work or on vacation.

today i have mostly been listening to stevie nicks - landslide. its a shame that the likes of madonna and lady gaga are more famous and well known than stevie, but amongst the greatest american female artists i hope she is included in and suspect she is highly rated and respected amongst people who are really into music and less into celebrity or silly publicity stunts. some people might think this is a girly song, but i like it and its just a great song and a great vocal. if you havent heard it, think of it as a lesson in your musical education. enjoy. (embedding inexplicably disabled, but we wont let the man deprive you of a classic. hit the link )

kids

work was pretty quiet this week. did a few bits of work but it was a slow week, but i am not complaining. i still get paid and there are a million worse things to do, than sit in a nice office, get given free lunches, not have your boss constantly standing over your shoulder.

nothing much else happening. just work and home and gym. weather has been terrible, even by the low standards we have for summer in london. showery, dark, cloudy and cold. i was walking to the station the other day after work, and it looked exactly like a dark november day with winter closing in. its been like that pretty much the whole of july, but today is the first day we have had blue skies and sun, this month. god, the sky looks beautiful in crystal clear blue. i had got used to it being a dirty grey colour.

watched the end of the tour de france. cavendish beat everyone on the champs elysee again, and although i was rooting for andy schleck, i cant begrudge cadel evans winning the tour. he might not be the most elegant cyclist, but he is a fighter and you have to respect that. andy will have his day one day, but cadel was awesome in the time trial yesterday. that was a champions ride and he also fought hard in the mountains. maximum respect to cadel.

am out in shoreditch on thursday night meeting up with some friends, so no football this week for me. i think its been cancelled anyway because a few of the other guys cant make it either. i should be seeing my friend who went to LA for 6 weeks, and will probably start feeling very jealous. actually its going to hit me hard in september when i am accustomed to being in warm southern californian sunshine for a week, but instead i will be stood in a crowded train making my way to work in shitty weather for the whole of this september. bring on january. have an idea to maybe go to portugal with a friend of mine who wants to watch some football, but most of my friends are useless so i am sure he will back out when i book it, and i will end up going to so-cal for a week.

a friend of mine wrote on facebook about amy winehouse dieing yesterday. as you know, i am her biggest fan, not!, but people passing away is always sad. anyways, i also noticed that he hadn't said anything about 84 kids massacred in norway, the day before. i didnt write anything on his facebook, but if you ever needed an example of how shallow and celebrity obsessed some people are, i thought that summed it up. winehouse had money and resources and people that were trying to help, unsuccessfully, to save her life, and yet it seemed she was reluctant to go to rehab and get herself sorted out. she had the chance of some help. there was no one to help those kids on that island, and yet they are not worth writing about on facebook, but winehouse is. everyone has their own priorities i guess, and their own audience they are playing to. maybe norweigan youngsters aren't as cool or talented, and so not worth mentioning or being associated with.

if it had been my most favourite footballer or music artist, i dont think it can compare to the tragedy in norway, and i was a teenager once and i can remember being out with my friends and for them to have their lives cut short like that is a bigger tragedy than if it happens to people that are older. their whole lives ahead of them and a future yet to be lived and fulfilled, taken away, for no reason and through not fault of their own. if i had died when i was 16, i would have missed out on so much that i have done since.

today i have mostly been listening to elbow - lippy kids. a lovely song about being a teenager. this is for the kids that passed in norway. the loss to their families and friends is unimaginable.

fire in the house

sweet jesus of nazareth, the weeks really are flying by now. was sat down on the 6th floor with the rest of the IT team, this week and they seem like a nice bunch of people. everyone has been there at the very least 2 years and at one of the guys has been there 9 years, so i am definitely the newbie, but everyone has been helpful.

am beginning to get a teeny tiny bit annoyed that i still dont have a desktop pc, or a permanent desk, for that matter. they have done everything professionally so far and they are a slick organisation, but they have let themselves down a bit with sorting out a desk for me. surely it cant be like this for other contractors that come in.

they dont even have the excuse the huge german bank had, when they kept me waiting for a pc and desk for 7 weeks. they were an organisation of thousands of people across multiple buildings. this is a hedge fund with a couple of floors in one building and a couple of floors in another building. staff number in the hundreds. basically its like they are wearing a nice tailored suit from saville row, a crisp white shirt, nice tasteful not vulgar watch by IWC but they are wearing a pair of dirty old adidas trainers. basically they have let themselves down right at the end.

was also interesting after my rant a couple of posts ago about glastonbury and the types of people that go there. i went on about how it was middle class twats that arent really into music or seeing bands. anyways, i overheard a couple of guys at work the other day talking about their glastonbury weekends a couple of weeks ago and which bands they saw. they then concluded the conversation by saying they were playing golf this week. when fat golf players who work at hedge funds start going to glastonbury, you know its over. am not sure if its actually possible to be any less cool.

in other news, tickets went on sale for a janes addiction show yesterday morning, but they sold out in about 7 seconds. they are playing a small venue in camden which would have been good, but i saw them about a year and a half ago, so its not big disaster if i dont get to see them this time, although it would be nice.

didnt go to the gym today as it was constant rain all day, which cleared up a couple of hours ago. i really couldnt stomach having to take public transport, and it was either that or get soaked on my bike. neither were very appealing so i gave it a pass. watched the supermen at the tour de france cycle up mountains in the pyrenees instead. alberto contador doesnt look as dominant or as strong as he has done in previous years. he might need to get some of his special steak cooked up for him. will definitely go to the gym tomorrow.

today i have mostly been listening to hard fi - fire in the house. very good new music.

japanese popstars

jeez, this week went by fast. was sat up back upstairs on my own at work but i had a few ESXi builds to do and a coupe of other bits to do, so i didnt really mind. just getting on with a bit of work and keeping myself to myself. would go down a couple of times a day to see rest of the team, but most of the time i was just getting on with it.

i still am working off my laptop for a lot of stuff and i did send an email earlier last week asking if i would get a pc and got no response. i will ask again this week as well. its not quite as bad as the large german bank i was at that made me wait 7 weeks, but i am starting to get a little annoyed with not having a proper pc.

went to see the new terence malik film, the tree of life last night. i thought it was good, but as with malik films i might need to watch it again. hopefully it hits the internets soon and i get me a decent copy of it. i did watch the adjustment bureau the other day and it was very good. if you have the means i recommend picking it up.

have also been watching tour de france on tv. its been very exciting already and a real shame that bradley wiggins crashed out yesterday. he looked to be in great shape and looked very strong so far. thats just the way it goes. have been trying to push myself a little harder when cycling to the gym, but there are far too many idiots driving around on the weekend in london. its like people are day dreaming whilst driving. i suppose being on a bicycle you cant afford to day dream at all and you are constantly really alert, but sat in a metal box its amazing how many people just seem to be on autopilot. obviously cant afford to get into any altercations that could turn violent, as i get security checked on every new contract and it would stop me from gettting work, so instead i tend to just swear a lot, instead. must have said the f word and c word at least 6 times within the first 5 minutes of my cycle to the gym. violent language not actions.

today i have mostly been listening to japanese popstars - joshua. lead singer from editors is doing vocals on this.

cosmic love

this week ended up going fast. was sat with the rest of the team at work because one of the guys who was in that team was away on holiday this week. next week am going to be back on my own again on the 6th floor, but its ok. its been good to just get to know some peoples names and faces that i might be working with over the next 6 months. have been impressed with the quality of knowledge the rest of the team have. they are miles cleverer than i am, but the project i am going to be working on isn't too taxing and so my shortcomings, of which there are many, should not be exposed.

weather has been quite nice all week as well, and i made sure i went to the gym last night, especially seeing as football got cancelled. also decided to give the free lunch a miss today as well. it was fish and chips or chicken curry and its all too easy getting used to big hot cooked free lunches, but before you know it, i will have put on kilos and kilos. went and had a sandwich with a guy that i worked with at my last contract at the investment bank. he has been there 4 years, but has really started to hate it recently and wants out.

he also said that the chancer had been back in last week, for what appeared to be not much more than to metaphorically suck on our ex-teamleaders cock, because you never know when you might need a contract and its always good to remind them you are still around and that you find their jokes hilarious and that you will remember them even when they have forgotten you. i also heard that the other investment bank where they had a bit of an old-boys network thing going on, might not be as good as they all thought it was going to be. heard that one of the guys who was there had said that they were being paid well, but that they were getting their pound of flesh out of them and working till 10pm some nights. not fun. today i left the office at 5pm. that'll do nicely for me thanks. looks like i will have some busy weekends and shit to do, but its not reactive support but instead a project with planned work and i am glad i left support behind. i sat with the guys who do it where i am now and i have done it myself for years, but it doesnt look like fun at all now.

tour de france starts tomorrow. hopefully andy schleck wins it although the fact that he cant time trial to save his life, might count against him at some point, and hopefully contador stays off the steroid beef this time. would be good if bradley wiggins did well as he is a very good rider and on good form. cant understand why they lord up a sour scot who happens to be shit at tennis and has no charisma (andy murray) and yet world class gold medal winners like bradley wiggins get relatively ignored.

today i have mostly been listening to florence and the machine - cosmic love. have a lovely weekend.