Way's World

Saturday, 30 August 2003

Lazy days...

Linda had to work this morning, so I just pottered around the house doing little jobs here and there. When she came home at midday we couldn't decide what we wanted to do, so we thought we'd have a lazy day sitting out in the sun (while it lasts!) We ended up at Ham Common, scene of my sunburn scare last month (don't worry, this time I had my jeans on) drinking Coke, eating crisps, and taking the mickey out of passers by...!!!

Friday, 29 August 2003

He's the Leader of the Pack...Brrrmm, brrrmmm!!!

I got a promotion today! My job title is now (well, from Monday anyway) Sales Support, Team Leader!! As mentioned in a previous post, my manager has been off ill for the last three months, and now she's come back her role has been re-evaluated. She's taking on extra responsibilities in the company, so she needed to offload some of her existing work and duties onto someone else, and as I've been doing the job since she's been away I thought I might as well apply! Should be fun...!!!

Wednesday, 27 August 2003

A Mars a Day...

We've just been outside looking for Mars (it's the closest it's been to Earth for around 60,000 years). We think we saw it - trouble is, it's still a long way off so we can't be entirely sure, but there's definitely a small red dot up there...

Sunday, 24 August 2003

Happy Anniversary!

Linda & I are celebrating our first wedding anniversary today, so we went to Weymouth for a wander - loads of tourists because of the Bank Holiday, we didn't buy a thing apart from lunch (Bella Pasta - I had a margherita pizza, Linda had Penne Alpina - chicken, bacon & pasta).

As it was such a lovely evening we decided that we'd go down the beach and have a paddle, but once we'd got there it was quite nippy, so we ended up eating crisps and drinking pop at Viewpoint in Poole.

I know it doesn't sound like a particularly fantastic day, but we've both had a thoroughly enjoyable anniversary - let's hope we have many more!!

Saturday, 23 August 2003

Day Tripping

Linda was out on the town with her sister-in-law last night, so we had a late(ish) start to the day. We decided to go to Compton Acres, a local attraction that has various gardens designed in different styles from around the world (such as the Italian Garden, the Spanish Garden, etc.) Earlier in the year we won a free pass to get in as often as we like, and as it's been a few weeks since we last went we thought we'd go and see what had changed, as it's been revamped over the past few months.

We had a nice walk round, although as it's a bank holiday & they had lots of things on for children the place was packed, so we didn't stay for as long as we otherwise might have.

It was too nice to go home, so we went down to the beach at Sandbanks and sat, eating ice creams and watching the world go by... great fun!

Monday, 18 August 2003

Film Review - Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines

I've just got back from watching 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' at the UCI in Poole.

I was a little bit apprehensive going to see it as it had a lot to live up to, but within the first few minutes I knew that it was going to be great! It's a similar premise to the other two Terminator films, in that John Connor (the future leader of the Resistance) has to try and stop the computers taking control of the worlds defence systems and ultimately starting World War 3, but this has a really nice twist in it - I don't want to give it away, but they have left a rather nice way of starting off Terminator 4.

Arnie as usual was brilliant playing the role he was born for (a robot with an Austrian accent), Claire Danes was very good (although we were halfway through the film before I realised that she was the girl who played Juliet in Romeo & Juliet), and the bloke who played John Connor (I can't remember his name!) wasn't as bad as everyone else is making out - I thought he was much better than Edward "don't I look moody with this hair flicking over my eyes" Furlong.

Even though you know (or at least you think you know) how it's going to end, you can't help but get caught up in the film - brilliant stuff!

Saturday, 16 August 2003

Beach Hut blues

Following on from Wednesday's post, today was the first full day that Linda & I could spend down the beach hut. This was also the first day in weeks that it's rained, blown a gale, etc. The lifeguards even had the red flags flying, warning people not to go in the water as it was so choppy! We stayed down there for a few hours until our parking ran out, then we came on home whereupon the sun shone and the wind died down! Typical!!!

Wednesday, 13 August 2003

Sausage inna bun?

We've got the use a beach hut at Sandbanks for the week (thanks to my brother in law), so we had a barbecue this evening! Last year we used bog standard charcoal and couldn't get the thing lit, so this time we bought those little bags that have pre-soaked charcoal in. Well, we weren't sure if one bag would be enough so we used both of them and this time we had no such problems - in fact, the bloody thing was so hot we couldn't get near it and we had to move things out of the way of the flames!

Linda's family were there, as were my aunt & uncle and a couple of friends of the family. Unfortunately my parents couldn't go as my dad was playing in the Gugge band at Bournemouth bandstand, but that aside we had a really good evening. We were there until 11.30pm chatting, by which point we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces.

Click the smaller picture of Linda to download a short video clip!

Sunday, 10 August 2003

Nice helmet!

The tyres are inflated, and the bike's had its first run down the road! Wahay!!!!

The bike's been cleaned and I'm just waiting for the oil to run down the cables...!!

Since I had my scooter stolen just before Christmas I've had no transport, so Dad bought me round a bicycle this morning. Nothing was particularly wrong with it apart from the mudguard rubbing on the rear tyre, it just needed a damn good clean and a bit of oil. I sorted out the rubbing tyre pretty much straight away but I had no oil to lube the bike with, so we went off to Halfords for a nose round.

Well, I ended up spending £37.00 (although not all of it on oil!). I know that unless you're a Tour De France rider you look a prat wearing a cycle helmet, but the pros outweigh the cons (especially when you look a bit of a prat most of the time anyway), so I tried a load on. Well, Linda was in stitches, she wouldn't stop laughing at me. I can't see why...

Saturday, 09 August 2003

Get your skates on!

As you may or may not know, Linda & I bought some roller skates the other day. Well, tonight we went down to her works' car park and spent a good hour whizzing round (well, Linda whizzed, I stumbled). BUT... I never fell over (unlike last time!!)

I've also ordered a cheap little digital camera today that I can leave in the car or carry round with me - it should arrive in the next couple of days, so next time we go I'll stick the piccies on. It's also got a 3 minute video option, so you can see just how awful I am at it...!!!

Wednesday, 06 August 2003

Paper cuts

Work's a bit hectic at the moment - it's bad enough being stuck indoors in weather like this (the temperature is around 35°C), but my boss has been off ill for a while, so I've been filling in doing her job. She does a lot of general troubleshooting around the place and it can involve quite a lot of running around, especially when there have been problems with deliveries and so on. Unfortunately, business is booming but the warehouse staff are struggling to cope, yet the people that have the power to do anything don't seem to recognise that there's a problem. These are just a couple of examples to set the scene, but you get the idea.

Everybody's been really stressed lately as you can imagine, so the slightest little thing is setting people off - this is the 'little thing' that's got me fuming...

Given the aforementioned problems with the warehouse, etc, you'd imagine that the management would want to get that sorted, but no - our IT bod came out of a meeting today to let me know that as there's too much use of paper in the business, we're no longer allowed to print out a calendar to pin on our walls. Yes, although we work in the trade and therefore have access to pallet loads of the stuff, I am not permitted to use 12 sheets of paper annually. For the sake of argument, let's take the retail price, which is around £2.00 a ream (500 sheets). This works out to 0.004 pence a sheet, or about 5p a year for the 12 sheets.

Apologies if I sound sarcastic, but with savings like that, we'll be in the FTSE 100 in no time...

Saturday, 02 August 2003

That look's lovely!

As it was such a lovely evening (and as I'd spent the afternoon in front of the telly, watching South Africa rack up a record total against England in the cricket), Linda and I decided to get chips, go off to Evening Hill at Sandbanks and gaze out over Poole Bay.

We sat on a bench overlooking the Bay, watching people cockling and boats sailing by. The view was lovely, you should have seen it...

...and you could have, if I hadn't left my camera at home, on the bed... 8-(

Still, there always next time!

Friday, 01 August 2003

Fame at Last! (well, sort of...)

Guess who appeared in tonight's edition of The Daily Echo... Yep, me!!! 8-)