The Clan of the Cave Bague

….to create a kind of gag which would simultaneously stop a child from yapping but still allow them to eat their tea.

I’d be rich! Rich, I tell you!

….to create a kind of gag which would simultaneously stop a child from yapping but still allow them to eat their tea.

I’d be rich! Rich, I tell you!

Quite literally. Frustrated by my attempts to find the One True Newsreader for Mac OSX (MacSOUP is close, but doesn’t follow the Aqua guidelines (and is missing a few minor functionality thingies)) I have embarked on a quest to write one.

So far, it’s completely database driven, and as a result blindingly fast.

Yum.

We’re planning our hols. We’re hoping to get a week at Blair Castle (Perthshire – just over the forth road bridge, past Pitclochry). There’s a very nice campsite there and the Highlands really are lovely in summertime. A week somewhere across the channel would be nice too. We’re thinking France or Germany. I think I’d prefer Germany cos I don’t speak any French and, given that most Europeans (except us Brits) can speak three languages fluently, I’d be too embarressed to go to a country where I couldn’t at least ask where the loos were.

Anyway, back to Blair Castle – I suspect Debbie’s sister and her family will be coming down from Lhanbryde to meet us for the week. That should be fun – five mad bairns charging around the highlands wielding bitey bugs. Lovely.

We were up in Lhanbryde (near Elgin) at the weekend, visiting Debbie’s sister. It was a lovely drive – about 4 hours each way, right through the highlands of Scotland. Went to a shop to buy some juice while we were there and it was, well, strange. I noticed that they had rowies on the shelf. Rowies are a kind of flat, semi leavened buttery bread type thing, originating form Aberdeen. They’re very yummy. Anyway, I was chatting away to the bloke behind the counter and he was doing a strange kind of head-back, teeth-projecting “Who he? He interloper! He no allowed up here” thing. On the way out the door, though, I said “oh – can I have half a dozen rowies as well, please?”

Well, it was as if I’d asked if I could lop his finger off and use it to pick my nose. This strange kind of suspicion flitted across his face – I could tell at a glance that he was thinking “interloper know sacred word! How that?” or something very similar.

*sigh*

Anyhoo, it was a very nice day out, if a little tiring. The children were very well behaved, given that they were stuck in the back of a car for a long time. Fortunately, I had my iPod with me (containing pretty much our entire CD collection) so there was no end of music to listen to. They slept all the way back, anyway – tired out with all the playing they were doing

We were up in Lhanbryde (near Elgin) at the weekend, visiting Debbie’s sister. It was a lovely drive – about 4 hours each way, right through the highlands of Scotland. Went to a shop to buy some juice while we were there and it was, well, strange. I noticed that they had rowies on the shelf. Rowies are a kind of flat, semi leavened buttery bread type thing, originating form Aberdeen. They’re very yummy. Anyway, I was chatting away to the bloke behind the counter and he was doing a strange kind of head-back, teeth-projecting “Who he? He interloper! He no allowed up here” thing. On the way out the door, though, I said “oh – can I have half a dozen rowies as well, please?”

Well, it was as if I’d asked if I could lop his finger off and use it to pick my nose. This strange kind of suspicion flitted across his face – I could tell at a glance that he was thinking “interloper know sacred word! How that?” or something very similar.

*sigh*

Anyhoo, it was a very nice day out, if a little tiring. The children were very well behaved, given that they were stuck in the back of a car for a long time. Fortunately, I had my iPod with me (containing pretty much our entire CD collection) so there was no end of music to listen to. They slept all the way back, anyway – tired out with all the playing they were doing

The contents of the garage at the time of the fire arrived this morning. They are a tad dusty but then they have been in storage for six months! They were cleaned and checked. I guess it means that John and I need to find a home for everything so a garage sort out will have to be done – it could take some time as things have been randomly packed lol! We have a fish tank that I had forgotten about. Think we could get some goldfish for it as they are quite easy to look after. Hm.

— Debbie.

I’ve spent much of today at my desk, which is always a good thing. Across from my desk is the titular Big Blue Curvy Thing. It’s a wall, about thirty feet across and fifteen feet high, which curves concavely away from me. It’s blue. If you have a Mac, you’d recognise it as Aqua blue. Written across the top of this wall in white lettering is the phrase “thinking out louder.”

It sums up a lot, really. I tend to babble in a stream of consciousness when I’m thinking, and this room itself is always filled with the hum of ideas. One thing I’ve noticed in this job is the sheer mass of creativity on display; if you take a wander through the room, there’s something fascinating happening at every desk. Right now, there’s a chap behind me building a scale model of a 3D installation he’s designing. Across from him, there’s a girl working on some print design. Right in front of me, Pete is stuffing his face with a very creative looking sandwich.

Actually, I think that’s only the second time I’ve seen Pete eat. It’s disconcerting

I’ve been doing a spot of rearranging of nelefa.org and it’s uploading as we speak. It’s snowing pretty heavily here, on and off. It’s a bit wierd. Other than being utterly up to my eyes in it at work, there’s been very little actually going on. The new job is very satisfying, if a little tiring.

And so another week begins. Was through in Glasgow at the weekend. Godawful miserable place, that. It always rains for some reason. I’ve also started the laborious process of migrating Miserable Bastard to Black Cat Networks. Well, I’ve set up a .co.uk domain for it while the .com transfers, but there we go. I’m feeling in a ranty mood these days – God knows, I’ve got enough to grumble about – so I may even get round to posting some of the things that’ve hacked me off over the past year.

Other than that, all is well and unchanging. New Job(tm) is starting to settle down a little – I actually feel that I’m making some headway now that most of the firefighting has died down (albeit temporarily). I’m afraid to type – that’s the only problem. I’m working with the LOUDEST tactile keyboard you’ve ever heard and when I get on a roll it sounds like machine gun fire. Bah I’m getting filthy looks from people around me.