had a nice xmas at home doing family stuff and eating far too much. weather has been terrible with constant rain, and my gym has been closed as well so there is not that much to do aside from eat and watch tv. things are getting back to normal now however and my gym will be open as normal this weekend and from wednesday onwards i can go on the evening as well. am carrying a little extra timber which i am going to lose over the next few weeks.
have been seeing facebook updates from a friend of mine who worked at the hedge fund i was at last year and who i saw a few weeks ago. if his status updates are anything to go by, i think its pretty safe to assume that his marriage has ended. its either that or he likes writing things on social media that are going to annoy his wife. come on dude, you know your wife hates you getting shitfaced, so i dont think its a good idea to post how wasted you are planning on getting on an evening out with your friends. oh well each to their own i guess.
i was working it out the other day that had i not left the last bank i was at i would have earned enough money in the last 3 and a half months to buy a nice shiny bmw 5 series, but then i thought about it and the only reason to earn money is so that you can take care of the people close to you that are important, and thats what i have been doing in that time. its been good to spend time with my mum and not leave her on her own so soon after my dad passed away, and thats more important than a beemer. money comes and goes, but once people are gone they are lost to you forever so you should cherish the time you spend with the ones that are important to you.
i mention that because i was talking to the guy whose marriage is coming to an end and he was saying how his wife was always saying they should save some money and buy their own apartment and settle into a place of their own instead of renting. he said he couldnt afford it but then 2 months ago he spent 40 grand on a new audi. you sometimes need to work out whats important to you and its different for everyone and there is no right or wrong thing....but if a car is more important than people then thats the wrong thing.
have also been doing little bits of gardening in between rain showers and i want to get as much done before i land a new contract and also so its looking nice for the summer, if we ever get one ever again, given the debacle that was summer 2012.
not much else going on. today i have mostly been listening to alex winston - velvet elvis. goodbye 2012. we look forward to a brighter day in 2013.
Friday 28 December 2012
Friday 21 December 2012
lullaby
after thinking i had gotten over my cold a few days ago i went to the gym again and felt fine, but the next day i had the mother of all colds again. clearly i had not shaken it off completely and i have barely left the house this week. the weather has been dark and wet and i have just staying in watch tv with a headache and body aching all over. today seems less bad than yesterday so hopefully things are getting better. i really need to go to the gym soon as i can feel myself just getting lazy and weak as the days go by. i dont want to slide to far down that mountain as its hard work climbing back up to where i was.
in other news, it seems like there is a big exodus from the hedge fund i worked at last year. a couple of guys that had been there years quit this week. all seems not to be well there. as i have been sat at home bored and ill this week, i have been doing some stock trading and i made 4 grand in the last 4 days, which is a nice bonus. merry xmas. i could just as easily found myself 4 grand down so i will not get carried away and think i am gordon gekko or something.
today i have mostly been listening to one of my favourite bands cover a song of one my other favourite bands. this is editors doing their version of Lullaby, by the cure. very good.
merry xmas.
in other news, it seems like there is a big exodus from the hedge fund i worked at last year. a couple of guys that had been there years quit this week. all seems not to be well there. as i have been sat at home bored and ill this week, i have been doing some stock trading and i made 4 grand in the last 4 days, which is a nice bonus. merry xmas. i could just as easily found myself 4 grand down so i will not get carried away and think i am gordon gekko or something.
today i have mostly been listening to one of my favourite bands cover a song of one my other favourite bands. this is editors doing their version of Lullaby, by the cure. very good.
merry xmas.
Sunday 16 December 2012
kettling
went to see the recruiter for the role about the hedge fund on friday to discuss the role and what it was about. sounds good and we shall see what happens with it but i doubt it will in 2012.
i cycled to the gym yesterday and felt ok on the way there. it was a little bit of extra effort but it was cold and shitty weather and its always quite unpleasant cycling on those condition. anyways, after about 20 mins in the gym whilst working out i started to feel unwell and dizzy and lightheaded and had to stop and go back to the changing rooms. all of a sudden i lost all power in my body and could barely lift anything. decided to get changed and go home which was an interesting experience as i had to cycle 7km, which is a bit difficult when you are dizzy and weak.
managed to make it home and spent the rest of the day huddled up watching tv and feeling unwell. today i feel the same and i think its a cold/flu thing but with out the blocked and running nose. i ache all over and i have a headache and am weak. hopefully it only lasts a couple of days and i get over it soon.
in other news it was very sad to hear about the massacre of children in newtown, conn. it reminded me of a couple of things i read recently. one was the murder of the the teenagers in norway and the other was when obama was wiping away tears in his press conference. it was an article i read about the killing of a 16 year old american by an american drone. you can read about it here, and next time you see Obama on tv balling his eyes out, remember they might be crocodile tears. killing kids is wrong whether its in newtown, norway or yemen, and whether its perpetrated by mentally unstable 20 year olds with guns or 51 year olds with drones. here is another drone strike that happened a few weeks ago and killed 3 children from the same family aged 8,10 and 12.
when you see the reporting that is still going on about the newtown massacre and now 2 days later the stories that are being reported about the names of the children and their families speaking about their grief, obama should remember that these 3 children he bombed had names as well and a mum and a dad that are overcome with grief. they are just as important as americans or british kids, even though they have darker skin and do not speak english. he said he thought of his own kids and as a parent when he heard about the newtown massacre. clearly he does not when its afghan kids, because he did not say anything about them. maybe they are un-humans. maybe he does not care or care enough to mention them. maybe it just seems like the right thing to say, when you say you are outraged by children being killed, as opposed to going on tv and saying you kill children, which is the policy he has put in place.
shame on mr obama and shame on him for pretending to be outraged by the killing of kids, when he clearly was not outraged and emotional a few weeks ago, when the same thing happened.
today i have mostly been listening to bloc party - kettling.
i cycled to the gym yesterday and felt ok on the way there. it was a little bit of extra effort but it was cold and shitty weather and its always quite unpleasant cycling on those condition. anyways, after about 20 mins in the gym whilst working out i started to feel unwell and dizzy and lightheaded and had to stop and go back to the changing rooms. all of a sudden i lost all power in my body and could barely lift anything. decided to get changed and go home which was an interesting experience as i had to cycle 7km, which is a bit difficult when you are dizzy and weak.
managed to make it home and spent the rest of the day huddled up watching tv and feeling unwell. today i feel the same and i think its a cold/flu thing but with out the blocked and running nose. i ache all over and i have a headache and am weak. hopefully it only lasts a couple of days and i get over it soon.
in other news it was very sad to hear about the massacre of children in newtown, conn. it reminded me of a couple of things i read recently. one was the murder of the the teenagers in norway and the other was when obama was wiping away tears in his press conference. it was an article i read about the killing of a 16 year old american by an american drone. you can read about it here, and next time you see Obama on tv balling his eyes out, remember they might be crocodile tears. killing kids is wrong whether its in newtown, norway or yemen, and whether its perpetrated by mentally unstable 20 year olds with guns or 51 year olds with drones. here is another drone strike that happened a few weeks ago and killed 3 children from the same family aged 8,10 and 12.
when you see the reporting that is still going on about the newtown massacre and now 2 days later the stories that are being reported about the names of the children and their families speaking about their grief, obama should remember that these 3 children he bombed had names as well and a mum and a dad that are overcome with grief. they are just as important as americans or british kids, even though they have darker skin and do not speak english. he said he thought of his own kids and as a parent when he heard about the newtown massacre. clearly he does not when its afghan kids, because he did not say anything about them. maybe they are un-humans. maybe he does not care or care enough to mention them. maybe it just seems like the right thing to say, when you say you are outraged by children being killed, as opposed to going on tv and saying you kill children, which is the policy he has put in place.
shame on mr obama and shame on him for pretending to be outraged by the killing of kids, when he clearly was not outraged and emotional a few weeks ago, when the same thing happened.
today i have mostly been listening to bloc party - kettling.
Wednesday 12 December 2012
the raveonettes
got a call from about a contract at a place i worked at earlier this year. its good money and they asked me if i wanted to do it. "no i don't want to do, but i guess i have to if there is nothing else out there".. i did not say that and said i would. it was a place i left after 3 months because i got an offer to go another investment bank, that i thought would be better but in fact it was worse. they asked me if i had anything else on the go as they didnt want me to pull that shit again and quit for a better offer somewhere else. i said i was cool and i had nothing else on.
.......and then 24 hours later i get mailed through linkedin by someone recruting for a hedge fund and it sounds like what might be my perfect job. so, actually i would pull that shit again if the hedge fund make me an offer. hey, you got to take care of yourself at times like these because no one else will.
today i have been listening to the ravonettes - she owns the streets. just a very good tune and song.
gangnam style gets over 900 million plays on youtube and this only gets 37,000. what the fuck is going on in the world.
stop the world, i want to get off now. dont leave me with these idiots. there are just too many of them and i cant take them all on. do your bit for resisting stupidity and have a listen to the raveonettes. bands that write songs and play instruments and write tunes that make you feel something or remind you of someone or something or stir some kind of emotion in you, need to be supported.
.......and then 24 hours later i get mailed through linkedin by someone recruting for a hedge fund and it sounds like what might be my perfect job. so, actually i would pull that shit again if the hedge fund make me an offer. hey, you got to take care of yourself at times like these because no one else will.
today i have been listening to the ravonettes - she owns the streets. just a very good tune and song.
gangnam style gets over 900 million plays on youtube and this only gets 37,000. what the fuck is going on in the world.
stop the world, i want to get off now. dont leave me with these idiots. there are just too many of them and i cant take them all on. do your bit for resisting stupidity and have a listen to the raveonettes. bands that write songs and play instruments and write tunes that make you feel something or remind you of someone or something or stir some kind of emotion in you, need to be supported.
Monday 10 December 2012
solange
am training like a beast recently. am coming up to a peak of conditioning that i have not been at many times and it feels good. am lucky that i have time during the day to do stuff around the house and in the evening once or twice a week and on the weekend i can go to the gym and train hard and not have to worry about rushing back.
i feel very lucky to be able to afford to not have to work and to be picky about what i apply for next. seeing as i have not heard back from the 2 places that did the phone interviews a week or two ago, its safe to assume that nothing will come up till the end of the year. i have worked in firms over christmas and there are change freezes and half the staff are on holiday on any given day. 2013 will be a fresh start.
was checking on my training app on my phone and i am coming up to nearly 2,400km cycled. i know i only do about 80-100km a month but it was a bit of a surpise to see 2,400km. that is pretty far and further than the distance between london and rome. i have access to a car but unless its raining i resist using it and always try and cycle to the gym. have been relatively lucky with the weather so far and we have even seen the sky and a bit of sunshine recently. it is getting very cold though now. still, at least its not raining or snowing.
am not going to play football this week either. i am not missing it yet so will pass. am also trying to do as much around the house and in the garden and garage as i can before the new year. i want to get everything done before i might have to start a new contract. chopped down a tree last week. thats like a gym work out in itself. am going to do some planting and hopefully it will be blooming come the summer. my dad always liked to have the garden full of plants and colour.
thats it. am going to meet up with some friends before christmas and will be home doing family stuff. nice and quiet. hopefully most the lawyer stuff will be dealt with as well in the next couple of weeks. i had more hassle with my bank, santander, today but slowly we are unravelling the mess they made me.
the days start getting longer in 12 days, not that i am counting each day down or anything. you cant tell the difference for a month or so, but psychologically its a boost and i need a boost.
today i have mostly been listening to solange - losing you. from bruce to beyonces sister. i will listen to anything good, and this is.
i feel very lucky to be able to afford to not have to work and to be picky about what i apply for next. seeing as i have not heard back from the 2 places that did the phone interviews a week or two ago, its safe to assume that nothing will come up till the end of the year. i have worked in firms over christmas and there are change freezes and half the staff are on holiday on any given day. 2013 will be a fresh start.
was checking on my training app on my phone and i am coming up to nearly 2,400km cycled. i know i only do about 80-100km a month but it was a bit of a surpise to see 2,400km. that is pretty far and further than the distance between london and rome. i have access to a car but unless its raining i resist using it and always try and cycle to the gym. have been relatively lucky with the weather so far and we have even seen the sky and a bit of sunshine recently. it is getting very cold though now. still, at least its not raining or snowing.
am not going to play football this week either. i am not missing it yet so will pass. am also trying to do as much around the house and in the garden and garage as i can before the new year. i want to get everything done before i might have to start a new contract. chopped down a tree last week. thats like a gym work out in itself. am going to do some planting and hopefully it will be blooming come the summer. my dad always liked to have the garden full of plants and colour.
thats it. am going to meet up with some friends before christmas and will be home doing family stuff. nice and quiet. hopefully most the lawyer stuff will be dealt with as well in the next couple of weeks. i had more hassle with my bank, santander, today but slowly we are unravelling the mess they made me.
the days start getting longer in 12 days, not that i am counting each day down or anything. you cant tell the difference for a month or so, but psychologically its a boost and i need a boost.
today i have mostly been listening to solange - losing you. from bruce to beyonces sister. i will listen to anything good, and this is.
Saturday 8 December 2012
bruce
i told the guys earlier in the week that i was not going to play football and it turns out like i picked the right week as it was raining and cold for the whole of thursday evening and it would have been thoroughly unpleasant to play in. its bad enough that no one can pass the ball or cant shoot straight but having to put up with that whilst freezing your ass off whilst getting progressively colder and wetter just makes things miles worse.
i will cycle to the gym and have managed to cycle the last couple of weekends and have found breaks in the weather. it is freezing cold and so cold that it stings your face whilst riding. its only 18 minutes and i always train better afterwards so i cant complain. we are almost exactly 2 weeks away from the shortest day of the year and then we start the long road out of the darkness and into the light.
was dealing with more lawyer and bank stuff today. christ, its a lot of work. thank goodness i have the time to deal with all this shit. i was supposed to go out with some of the guys from the hedge fund i worked at last year but one of my good friends from there could not make it and i decided i would pass as well as he is one of the few people who can talk about something apart from what car/watch/tv/stereo is going to be purchased next. i dont think i could take 3 hours of listening to why an audi q7 is better than a range rover and i dont really care.
today i have mostly been listening to bruce springsteen - thunder road
i will cycle to the gym and have managed to cycle the last couple of weekends and have found breaks in the weather. it is freezing cold and so cold that it stings your face whilst riding. its only 18 minutes and i always train better afterwards so i cant complain. we are almost exactly 2 weeks away from the shortest day of the year and then we start the long road out of the darkness and into the light.
was dealing with more lawyer and bank stuff today. christ, its a lot of work. thank goodness i have the time to deal with all this shit. i was supposed to go out with some of the guys from the hedge fund i worked at last year but one of my good friends from there could not make it and i decided i would pass as well as he is one of the few people who can talk about something apart from what car/watch/tv/stereo is going to be purchased next. i dont think i could take 3 hours of listening to why an audi q7 is better than a range rover and i dont really care.
today i have mostly been listening to bruce springsteen - thunder road
Monday 3 December 2012
national anthem
christ, its a good thing i have my days free as i have been dealing with so much lawyer and bank shit the last week or so, that i dont know how i would have coped had i been working at the same time. fingers crossed, i wont have much more to do with the lawyer taking care of all my dads stuff aside from a few signatures and details. its taken quite a while to get all the information together and its an effort trying to trace every single account and certificates and insurance policies and other stuff. i think we are close to the end.
on top of all that, my bank, Santander, did a couple of massive fuck ups which took up a lot of my time. i opened a new account for myself on their advice as the account i had paid no interest and this new one does. rather than have 2 accounts to manage i asked them to move my debits from the old account to the new one. my mortgage being the most important thing and i arranged little things like gym membership of phone bill. i also told them not to touch any of my dads accounts and direct debits as the lawyer was doing all the paperwork and would be in touch about transferring it to my mum. my dad had a mortgage and i have been transferring money into his old account so that the mortgage can carry on being paid as it is, until the names can be changed.
so what did my bank do?. they cancelled all my dads direct debits before they could get transferred to my mum by the lawyer. cable tv, mortgage, council tax all gone. and they also did not move my mortgage payments to my new account, which they told me to do. luckily i had enough money in the old account to pay my mortgage, but i have spent the last couple of days trying to manually pay all the direct debits that got cancelled from my dads account. i have been topping up his account by a couple of grand a month to make sure there were always enough money to pay for everything and whilst i can put money into his account i cant take anything out. it means i have had to pay all the bills last month out of my own accounts despite transferring money into my dads account so they got paid that way.
to sum up, when dealing with santander, its always good to have at least 4 months of mortgage payments on hand because there is no telling that they will take the money from the correct account, if they take it at all. fucking muppets. its been such a headache getting all this shit
sorted with the lawyer and i really did not need these fucktards to give me extra shit to sort out.
Santander are also the same people who without actually saying the words "drug dealer", "gun runner", "another Nick Leeson" "London whale", accused me of having a suspiciously large amount of money not commensurate with someone who works with computers for a living, when i applied for my mortgage. they had no fucking problem with my money whilst it was accumalating in their accounts but they decided to get religion when i decided to borrow some for a mortgage. its a horrible experience dealing with them. i think this might be a good time to bail on them and move to another bank. i will do so once i get all this other shit sorted.
also since i have changed my account i asked the people who are renting my apartment to pay the rent into the new account. i told them 5 weeks ago and today i get a call saying they paid in cash and for me to pick it up. cash!!, what the fuck?. its bad enough that they think i am drug dealer at my bank, now i have to turn up with wads of cash to pay in every month. thanks.
2012 can fuck right off. its been shit. my dad died in may and since then its been pretty awful with the exception of 10 days in NY and cali. please 2013 be good to me, i am not sure how much more i can take.
today i have mostly been listening to the gaslight anthem - national anthem. this was on my playlist in the US in september. great song. this is an album track from their last album, handwritten. if you are going to buy one album of theirs, dont buy this one. buy 'the 59 sound' its a better album as a whole. saw them on tour around that time and play in hollywood. what a great night that was. i can close my eyes and remember it all. good times. got to remember the good times in times like these.
on top of all that, my bank, Santander, did a couple of massive fuck ups which took up a lot of my time. i opened a new account for myself on their advice as the account i had paid no interest and this new one does. rather than have 2 accounts to manage i asked them to move my debits from the old account to the new one. my mortgage being the most important thing and i arranged little things like gym membership of phone bill. i also told them not to touch any of my dads accounts and direct debits as the lawyer was doing all the paperwork and would be in touch about transferring it to my mum. my dad had a mortgage and i have been transferring money into his old account so that the mortgage can carry on being paid as it is, until the names can be changed.
so what did my bank do?. they cancelled all my dads direct debits before they could get transferred to my mum by the lawyer. cable tv, mortgage, council tax all gone. and they also did not move my mortgage payments to my new account, which they told me to do. luckily i had enough money in the old account to pay my mortgage, but i have spent the last couple of days trying to manually pay all the direct debits that got cancelled from my dads account. i have been topping up his account by a couple of grand a month to make sure there were always enough money to pay for everything and whilst i can put money into his account i cant take anything out. it means i have had to pay all the bills last month out of my own accounts despite transferring money into my dads account so they got paid that way.
to sum up, when dealing with santander, its always good to have at least 4 months of mortgage payments on hand because there is no telling that they will take the money from the correct account, if they take it at all. fucking muppets. its been such a headache getting all this shit
sorted with the lawyer and i really did not need these fucktards to give me extra shit to sort out.
Santander are also the same people who without actually saying the words "drug dealer", "gun runner", "another Nick Leeson" "London whale", accused me of having a suspiciously large amount of money not commensurate with someone who works with computers for a living, when i applied for my mortgage. they had no fucking problem with my money whilst it was accumalating in their accounts but they decided to get religion when i decided to borrow some for a mortgage. its a horrible experience dealing with them. i think this might be a good time to bail on them and move to another bank. i will do so once i get all this other shit sorted.
also since i have changed my account i asked the people who are renting my apartment to pay the rent into the new account. i told them 5 weeks ago and today i get a call saying they paid in cash and for me to pick it up. cash!!, what the fuck?. its bad enough that they think i am drug dealer at my bank, now i have to turn up with wads of cash to pay in every month. thanks.
2012 can fuck right off. its been shit. my dad died in may and since then its been pretty awful with the exception of 10 days in NY and cali. please 2013 be good to me, i am not sure how much more i can take.
today i have mostly been listening to the gaslight anthem - national anthem. this was on my playlist in the US in september. great song. this is an album track from their last album, handwritten. if you are going to buy one album of theirs, dont buy this one. buy 'the 59 sound' its a better album as a whole. saw them on tour around that time and play in hollywood. what a great night that was. i can close my eyes and remember it all. good times. got to remember the good times in times like these.
Saturday 1 December 2012
football rant
had my telephone interview on thursday and it seemed to go ok. might hear something back from them this coming week.
had football last on thursday as well and i did not enjoy it at all. i have had quite a few times recently where i have not like it as much as i used to. anyways, it all ended with me getting frustrated with it all and in the last minute i slid in hard against one of the guys on the other team and commited a hard foul. it was not a nice thing to do but there were mitigating circumstances leading up to it.
firstly, i play football to play football and not just to run around for an hour on a thursday night. i was already annoyed 2 minutes into the game because we had a guy in goal who did 2 terrible mistakes and let in 2 easy goals. he then had the nerve to then turn to me and tell me i have to run around more. excuse me!. you just fucked up twice and you are giving me advice on how to play the game.
here is some advice for you. when you are in goal, play the ball out to someone on your own team and not straight to the opposition player who then takes one step and slams the ball straight past you. oh, and then do not do the same thing 60 seconds later with the same result. i suggest you concentrate on your own deficiencies than telling others what they are doing wrong. when you fuck up in goal at any level, just remember it was your fault and keep your mouth shut. dont start instructing your team mates what they should do, see clip below
above is similar to what he did....twice in 2 minutes, and then he got mouthy afterwards.
secondly, there are 2 guys on the other team who just do niggling kicks at you. its not hard and its not malicous. its just that they are a bit clumsy and dont really know how to play. whenever you are in possesion and shielding the ball from one of them they insist on trying to kick the ball from around you even though you have your body between the ball and unless they have legs that are a foot longer, its impossible to get the ball. they just end up banging into your knees and ankles. see clip below. even these school children dont attempt to kick around the player when he is shielding the ball. kids know that shit, so why dont you fellas, but they insist on trying to kick the ball and only end up kicking your knee or ankle of calf, because the ball is out of reach.
anyways, after an hour of this shit as well as people running with ball and incapable of passing it, missing easy chances to score goals which makes the clip below look like nothing, i had had enough.
i have played football all my life. i love playing and i dont care if my team wins or loses. i just dont like spending an hour running around in the cold, passing it to team mates and trying to play properly whilst people who know less about playing the game tell me how to play the game and people with a fraction of the talent and skill kick me every time i get the ball, so i snapped. its happened before as well. about 6 months ago the exact same thing happened. i didnt end up going the following week so it would give me a break from it.
we had a really good group of friends that played with us when we first started playing about 6 or 7 years ago. since then a few of them have dropped out for one reason or another and to make up the numbers, a few new guys have started playing that clearly have never played the game much before. i used to play every day at school. i played for my school team from the age of 7 all the way through high school till i was 18 and i carried on playing with my friends in the summer when i was university. some of these guys look like they never played at school in the playground let alone for a school team in a proper game and some of them have clearly no idea about how to play the game. they cant shoot, they cant kick with both feet, they cant control the ball and they kick you in the knee and calf when you are shielding the ball and despite the fact they did not get the ball insist on trying again and again to do it, to the point a few minutes later you are so angry that you charge in and do a hard foul against them.
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