Tired and Hungry, but mostly Tired.

I am enjoying my break from work but I am feeling a bit tired today. The past 5 days have been pretty hectic and so tomorrow I am just going to try and have a relaxing day at home. Which might be something of a challenge with a heap of IKEA furniture to assemble for Dan's bedroom, a new video card supposedly arriving for my computer and no doubt a number of other surprises along the way.

I am agonising at the moment about having a mobile phone with GPRS capability. But I just realised that I have a phone that has that capability already - just that the account that my employer provides doesn't allow us to use GPRS. Hmm, what to do, what to do?

Sleep sounds good. See ya tomorrow.

Jasper

Marie and I got home yesterday evening from a flying visit to Surrey. On Sunday afternoon we drove down to Farnham to see my brother Dave and his wife Sarah. We went out for a nice meal and a fun evening chattering about all manner of things and in true Simes style out in the middle of nowhere I bumped into someone I knew. We stayed over night with Dave and Sarah and after a leisurely morning we drove the short distance to Farnborough to meet some friends for lunch - John, Linda and Ben. We went to a pub called the Monkey Puzzle which stands next to a rather spectacular Monkey Puzzle tree. Ben managed with a bit of help from his dad John to eat a rather spectacular huge desert.

So, then why is this post called Jasper? Well, because Dave and Sarah have a rather gorgeous cat by that name. I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Ready ...

... am I ever? Ready. Yes I am. For what you ask? For a break from work. I have 3 more days at work this week (like most people I suppose) and then I have 2 whole weeks of not being at work. I am really looking forward to it. I plan to turn relaxation into an artform. I have no clue how yet - but, hey, a plan is a start.

As previously blogged, I also want to get some stuff done this holiday too. Not so much that I need a holiday when I get back to work - but enough so that I don't just think "So What!?" at the end of it. Things that are on my mind include CD collection sort out, tidy up the computer room (including throwing out some more stuff), teaching Marie all about ebay muhahahaha, doing some photography, doing some cooking (again), reading some books, drinking some wine, etc.

Am I really?

Which Programming Language are You?

This surprised me even more than being told I was an introvert !!

The Colour Red

So the UK postal service is known as Royal Mail - why I am not quite sure, the Queen's family don't deliver it. It used to be a state owned organisation and then it was privatised.

My guess it is pretty much like any other postal service - it has post offices where you can buy stamps and stick them on things and post them and with a bit of luck they get delivered.

For as long as I can remember (at least) the basis of the UK postal system has been weight. Something that weighs an ounce (that's about 28 grams to you metric-heads) costs about 30 UK pence to post - about the price of a bar of chocolate. Doesn't seem extreme to me - but I would rather have the chocolate.

So, anyhow, that means that I send an empty cardboard box that is big enough to put a TV in, say, for the same price as a greetings card 6 inches long by 4 inches wide - all assuming I am not being totally silly and they weigh the same.

But no more, oh no, not from August 21st, the Royal Mail has decreed that anything larger than 240 mm X 165 mm X 5mm weighing less than 100 g is a "letter" and will cost 32 pence to post. Anything larger, up to 353 mm x 250 mm x 25mm and weighing between 0g and 750g will be known as a "large letter" and will cost anything from 44p to 131p to post. Anything larger than that regardless of weight will be a "packet" and will cost 100p to post.

These prices are first class post and we won't even debate the relative merits of first versus second class post. Because the chocolate differential just is not worth it.

It all seems reasonable to me - I can understand that is is more awkward to handle larger sized items of post. It won't impact me that much - since I hardly ever post anything. I buy chocolate instead.

So why am I posting this blog entry. Because, the Royal Mail has sent out an A4 sized trifold brochure to every postal address in the land - probably something in the region of 30 some million addresses would be my guess. The brochure says that for 80% of posted items will cost the same or less to send. I reckon that each of these brochures cost at least 10p to print and distribute - so that's 3 million pounds, which however you look at this is a lot to recoup on such small chocolate differentials.

But there's more - I also realised by reading this lovely A4 trifold brochure that I can no longer use the colour red - because, and I quote:

"Royal Mail, the Cruciform and the colour red are registered trademarks of Royal Mail Group plc"

Check that out - it is not even capitalised, so it is not a specific "Colour Red" just the generic colour red. How can that be? Someone explain that to me. If I don't find out, I could be in deep trouble if I bleed.

Getting stuff done.

Weekends are too short - I guess they always have been. They feel a lot shorter to me though when I know that I am going to be away from home for 5 days. There are so many things I would like to get done at home - leisure things, fix the house up things, clear out junk things, etc., etc. But there are just so many of them that I just know that some of them will never get done - and that irks me somewhat.

So, I've got two weeks off work coming up at the end of August and that means I will have more time to "get stuff done". And so, I will try to get some of my non-work things done. The challenge is to come up with a prioritised, realistic list that doesn't end up with me needing another holiday after my, erm, holiday.

More on this as my thoughts develop - or alternatively a post in early September simply saying "Doh!".

In other news - considering today was Monday, it was not a bad day at all.