Archives: work

OK – I missed yesterday. I was at home. I was not ill, but I don’t feel so bright today. Louise was ill. She would have coped, but for the fact that the cold she has probably is in her sinuses & getting at her inner ear – making it all rather painful for her. She had a good portion of sleeping done in the morning & was feeling a tad better. She was due a doctor’s appointment, but she cancelled. I stretched my credulity by pouring a drop of warm olive oil in her ear. Louise says that her mum used to do this when she was young, but I’m still not really sure on that. Jack’s behavior was not great yesterday. He did not get a good night’s sleep the night before (So neither did I) possibly because he was fretting over the fact that he was going to school in the morning -1st day back after the holidays. On the whole though he’s being annoying & provoking. Last time he was like this he was ill – so, I think we can take it that he is not feeling grand either. Eve is warm – she probably has a temperature, but is coping quite well with it all. She gets the occasional dose of paracetamol to keep her temp in check. She is not wailing as much as she would usually when ill though, or are we getting used to it? Jude is… Well – he’s a baby – there’s no particular trait that would indicate he is ill. His nose runs when he gets upset – there you go.

I was feeling a bit guilty for not going into work, as I know it’s mad busy. We have people phoning up to complain a lot as one of the 3 mail servers we run was down. I should bear in mind that there were 3 on & not just me on the phone as the day before though.

Revolting weather this morning. Thrashing wind & rain – instant soaking. Hah! What a laff! ….Only – they won’t be coming to do the roof again at this rate… At least the Summit Tunnel was not flooded again.

Busy at work again yesterday.
BT pulled a funny one changing the format of the packets sent over the network to us – which caused out RADIUS server to crash. Translation: when someone phones us to connect to us as an Internet Service Provider BT sends their request to us down the phone line. BT started to send these signals to us in a new & different format (without actually telling us they might try this) & the server that listens for these connection & checks the caller’s user name & passwords got well confused & stopped working properly – so – no one could connect – so all hell broke loose.
So – my website is still down as it was all hands to the pump to try & figure out what the hell was going on?! No time for rebuilding servers.
Oh, & we have to field calls from people disgruntled that their website is down – even though they do not have to actually pay for the service.
Good innit.
We are busy at work.

Jude near smiled at me yesterday. I was holding him in the bath & chatting to him, & he nearly smiled; an all to brief flash of a smile & a half smile. He was content.
His eyes are still blue. Whether they will remain blue, only time will tell. I can’t recall when the colour ‘sets’ as it was. They all start off with dark blue eyes, but Jack & Eve have gone hazel.
I seem to recall that my brother’s eyes changed from a green to a hazel when he was a boy. Maybe he made it up, but his impressionable younger brother took note of what he claimed.

So – I did no work in the attic over the weekend. Bad Paul – bad.

We did rearrange the kid’s room though as we are thinking that Jude might go in there as well in the travel cot. It remains to be seen that we will do this, but it’s nice to have the option, & the room seems better for it. Jude sleeps very well with us, but he will he cope on his own? He didn’t really go for the Moses Basket that much.
Louise said that he was smiling yesterday morning. He certainly seems to have moved up a notch in perception terms. Instead of focusing on a light over your shoulder, or the transition between a light & dark area he is looking more at you. Into your eyes (& the drifting off & you realise that he is not any more). He is starting to coo & gurgle a little as well. Jack & Eve love him to bits. Louise says that Eve announced that she “..Like baby Jude”. They would spend a lot more time giving him kisses if he was not out of reach.

Website is still down; has been all weekend. Weird. I know exactly why, but am not saying, as I’m not sure I’m allowed. Suffice to say the cause was not our fault.

Well – the weather has been shitty this week – so no fix on the roof. I was up there last night though doing evening work on paint stripping. Louise thinks it would be a good idea if I tried to do a ‘push’ up there for a couple of weeks. I have to agree it would be a good idea. I will not be able to concentrate so much on getting web stuff done although that is already beginning to suffer from a lack of time in general at the moment.
The diary page is in dire need of a tidy up, but minutes to spare are sparse. Noted last night that the site was down. This was due to a power cut initially, but the server that it’s based on has not recovered. Some kind of hard disk failure – so no doubt we will be fielding a lot of call from that problem at work today as well. Bah.
Fortunately I only just did a complete download of the site last week – so I do have a proper backup (phew!)

Home train – slept on the morning train (I needed it). I blame audiogalaxy… or should I blame the internet in general? Heh. At least I don’t feel dead in the water now.
Just have a headache, but that’s probably due to busy at work as much as sleep deprivation. ‘Busy’ – responsibility can be landed at BT’s door.
More rain this week. Will they be able to get the roof sorted this week or will the dampness on the plaster in the attic spread the more?
bah
Going to do some more paint stripping when I get home. Pretend that I am not home & sneak into the attic, so that the kids do not get to join in the ‘nasty chemicals’ that are used for such activity.
I really should do more work in the evening, but then I really should do more work on a lot of things.
How many times do I have this discussion with myself…
Oh, I’ve put myself off now.
I am annoyed with typing (pretence?)
I shall read for a bit.
Leisure time on the way home :P

Just savouring the fact that I am on the way home…
The sky is blue.
I am starting to feel human again. Been traipsing around Manchester town centre a bit in an aimless sort of way for a while.
Been busy at work again. Integration problems for some people from the company we took over the customer base of (Birmingham ISP Cloud9).
We got a bunch of equipment from them yesterday as well. Servers racks & all that sort of thing. Heavy stuff to be moved. There was a desktop machine that has a nice spec & given to us in tech support. As I currently have the most sluggish machine I’ve got it. Nice to have a bit of zip in the step.
We had network problem on our systems today. One of those once in a blue moon moments. I cannot really recall the last time it happened, but routers were being updated/patched & one crucial one did not go to plan & everything went dead in the water for.. well – it was probably less than an hour – but such things always seem to be an eternity.
Still – I feel over tired at the moment.

Poor kid – she must be 4 or under, & her mum is not happy with her. They just got off the train – she’d fallen asleep & her mum got her off her knee &said we’re getting off – “Open your eyes.” Then through gritted teeth “Open. Your. Eyes.” The kid was crying her eyes out when they got on the train & all her mum was doing was threatening her for crying. “I’m gonna paste you in front of all these people if you don’t stop whingeing!” She was obviously tired & more obviously wanting reassurance, but only getting rebuffed. You become much more critical of other parents when they are just being selfish. Especially when your so self critical. A hug would have probably made the kid feel immediately better rather than a torturous 5 mins of wailing & returned threats as we left Manchester.

tired – no more thinking today.

It’s half term holidays for Jack – so no school. He is going to a playgroup with Louise, Jude & Eve today, so I hope he’s well behaved with all the young ones. Of course he may not be the only ‘older’ one there.
Hectic at work yesterday, & being late in, it seemed more so, as I had no chance to get going with mail queries. Constant ketchup. The trains were running again for the journey home. The ran stopped as I was travelling & as I got to Manchester yesterday the dark clouds seemed to be peeling back. The day was apparently delightful & sunny – not that I can see such from work as we don’t have a view of the sky (excepting the view from the toilets).
The kids got to play out yesterday on the back street. It would have been better for them if a neighbours kid (Kirsty – poss 8/9 & plays too rough) wasn’t bothering them. Louise was annoyed by her presence, as it seems she was possibly ‘leading them astray’. Louise shocked her with the acuteness of her hearing. She was whispering to Jack & Eve that they could have some Pringles (crisps) if they came out of the back yard. Louise shouted out that she should not & Kirsty was suitably shocked at being caught. She usually scares Eve, but I think this wanton bribery won her round (annoyingly). Eve was not running away from her. Kirsty still has not grasped the fact that if you run up to a 2 year old – as a stranger you are likely to scare them silly. Eve has never really trusted her before because of this, & I’ve no reason to think that she will not become scary once more (“Scary Kirsty”). Amber also is very wary of her – last time I saw Amber on the back street she was running inside her house (to get away from Kirsty)

Making a stab at a bit of typing on one of these bouncy no table trains where you can smell the engine fumes in the heating.

Bah. Busy at work again as we have taken over another ISP again & things are not going as smoothly on the technical front as envisaged (do they ever?).

Jack has slept through the night 2 nights running – doesn’t sound much – but it’s good.

So I did the haircut thing at last. Short enough not to have to worry about it. Also the unbounded joy of walking to B&Q after work to pick up a new toilet seat. The old one was starting to get battered.
I also managed to actually find the time to perform a couple of tweaks on the ZUM! site that I’ve been meaning to sort out (as the fact that it worked on the Mac platform & not the winders one was right getting on me tits. Stoopid Microsoft. Oh look, says winders browser – there be a specified width for a table cell – let’s ignore it … grrr

Busy at work again as BT had ‘major network failure’ that resulted in the all ISP’s that they supply finding that people had a spot of bother dialling up. Bah! At least it’s nearly working…. uh… right…
All in all though – I feel as though I’m actually becoming less cantankerous (that I have been of recent).
My brother’s birthday present finally made it into the post yesterday. Shamefaced as I am, at least he will get it now! Perhaps it’s this tying up of lose ends that is helping my demeanour? Feeling self centred now :)
Jack’s cough has developed no further. It still sounds nasty, but thankfully that is all. Eve may be joining him in the coughing, but she seems less afflicted than Jack. He’s well enough to go to school.
Eve is becoming more forceful with her character. Apparently she spent much of a playgroup session last week running around making a shouty noise. She is generally very happy & playful – cheeky, even. Starting to develop an interest in getting out of nappies, but with still no idea what it’s all about (not relying on nappies) – so consequently, not really much of an idea when she might need to use a potty or whatever. It will come, but there’s no point in worrying her about it. Leave her happy, if not uncomfortable when she has a ‘problem’ in her training pants… heh.

GET YER HAIRCUT BOY!

New hours started at work yesterday. It didn’t really occur to me going in yesterday morning, as the start time is the same… However, we finish earlier.

It was a bit odd… it felt like I was sneaking off early, which I guess I was (DUH!). Getting home early is distinctly pleasant. I like that a lot. Eve was asleep when I got back & it was time to wake her, as we needed to get off to pick up Jack from school. She was lying on the bed, so I lay in front of her, so she could see me when she stirred. We had prepared the way for a wake up of a grumpy girl, but it was not needed. Louise woke her by putting her boots on, she saw me, & smiled, & I smiled back. I think she was glad to see me as she had a very good wake up & was exceptionally cheery. I carried her down to Jack’s school & she just kept smiling & exclaiming her delight at the world in general. Ah, the sort of thing that really cheers the heart.

Jack was glad to see me as well. A bit of a surprise. Took advantage of me & got a ride on my shoulders home. Eve demanded a ride on Louise’s shoulders for a little while as well. Human transport. The television did not go on at home. Jack has got into the habit of flopping in front of it a bit when he gets home from school. Not something that Louise approves of; just tolerates, I might add. Another habit broke.

Of course this is just the one-day, so it remains to be seen how it will all span out. I am hoping that it will prove a useful chance to get the decorating sorted as well. Not much papering remains, then varnishing the paper & it’s ‘all change’.