Silence is golden

I've just spent about 5 minutes on the internet in a 5 way voice conference on Skype and none us said a word. We just let silence consume all that bandwidth.

Afterwards, I moaned that my internet connection was running like a dog. To which, G. replied "What? Running around in circles, smelling its own arse!" Which actually is a good analogy for a poorly performing internet connection in my view.

Having said that - don't mention the word "performance" to me at the moment. I hate it - that's all you need to know, trust me - unless you want to read a 10,000 word blog entry and I don't think that you do.

Still tomorrow is another day eh?

Just about sums it up ...

... I just watched a new (to me anyway) TV sitcom called "The IT crowd". It is based around a company that operates out of a 34 story tower office block (presumably in London). On the 34th floor it is all a bit Ally McBeal. In the basement there exists the 2 man IT department - I don't know their real names but they are essentially "Slob Nerd" and "Totally Anal Nerd" amidst a morass of obsolete computers - most of which have never been used in a corporate environment (as far as I am aware). They occasionally answer the phone and Slob shouts "Are you sure you have switched it on?" or "Have you tried switching if off and on again" whereas Totally prefers to baffle his customers (sic) with mind blowing, white noise jargon. They get a new manager, a woman (which is fine by me - but to Slob and Totally is not) who knows nothing about computers at all (which is even less acceptable to Slob and Totally). OK, so it is not quite an accurate parody of my current work environment - but it does remind me of the earlier stages of my career in some ways.

Except that in those days we were the heroes and now we're in the shitty basement of a 34 floor office block with managers who know nothing about computers.

Hotter Than July !!

Stevie Wonder from September 1980, Marie bought it for me. But anyway, looks like the UK is going to at least start July with some really hot weather. Good for Wimbledon I suppose - not so good for, erm, well insulated chaps like myself.

Of course, like a lot of other English people, I am still rather disappointed by the defeat at the hands of Portugal on Saturday afternoon. It might sound bitter but I honestly believe that Portugal's approach has been despicable both in the game against the Netherlands and against England - win at any (cheating) costs.

I would love to be a fly on the wall of the Manchester United changing rooms when Christian Ronaldo returns for pre-season training and Wayne "splits him in two" (front page of the Sun newspaper 3rd July 2006).

Ah well - there is always 2010.