Started a bit later than planned but cracked on anyway. Sun was shining but didn’t last. Sasha had a nice walk though. Spent the bulk of the day syncing code and data on three machines and doing lots of building. Finally went out in the evening for an eight mile run. Managed to eat an entire bag of Maltesers so my carbs are far too high, will have to forgo the yogurt. Had a shower, sat in bed and finally ordered a new iMac, it’s top of the range without the memory upgrade as thats just piss taking, I’ll buy that elsewhere. All tax-deductible. Time for salad.

Got up late. The weather today was weird, blazing rain and gales, yet lunchtime it was just windy and tonight it was quite pleasant. Spent most of the day trying to reproduce something I couldn’t. Added a load of new stuff for an artist and then stripped a load of old stuff out. Re-written my job description and job title, I’m getting pissed off with people asking me about screen dirt and water shaders, when all I know about is DMA and constant buffers, so time to make it clear. Walked Sasha, made up for yesterday. Walked to gym, did Pump, but was very tired. Did a bit more work, watched some telly, now about to have a snack and go to bed.

Bit of a day of two halves and a never ending evening. Work once again started with debugging something for an artist and then suddenly descended into a seven hour bug hunt for something that has been randomly crashing for about six years. I finally worked out what it was just before I had to leave for Staverton. Drove up there, there was an accident on the way delayed me by about ten minutes but still got there on time. My medical lasted about eighteen minutes and cost seventy quid plus VAT. I’m apparently fine for another two years. All paperwork signed and sorted, I popped a copy into James, met Quentin again, he’d just tested another PPL. Drove back, did another few hours of work. Went out for a run and then ate a brief salad. Then got stuck on the motorway to pick up Jamie and his mum, had horrendous hammering rain all the way to Weston and then on the way back had to do a twenty mile diversion due to the slip road being closed, in the end the journey was just shy of three hours. Finally sat down at almost 1AM and had the first cup of tea since about 4PM. Hoping for a less hectic day tomorrow.

Woke up early which was odd as I’d gone to bed quite late. Working on artist problems for the beginning of this week, so a whole new world of pain. At least I was left mostly uninterrupted. Nice weather again today, but bloody freezing, so Sasha got a nice long walk. Walked to gym, did Combat, came back and did another two and a half hours, need to make up some time as I’m out for a while tomorrow afternoon. Now time for some salad and then probably bed.

So started the day with coffee and another paper. Walked Sasha, picked up the poo and then drove up to Satverton. Weather wasn’t bad, a bit chilly, but a northerly wind and good visibility. I did almost an hour of general handling, a couple of auto’s, a confined area and some truly bad quick stops, that got better as we went on. Ben said I looked tense when setting down, I said I was somewhat wary of the ground, he said that it is usually the first thing you hit. I got the hang of it again after a couple and was setting down like a feather. Drove back and took Sasha out ageing until it was dark. Did the accounts, had a bath, phoned mother, she’s still alive.

So next week I have my medical, I then need a vict…volunteer to take a short flight out to the north over the Malvern Hills, so I can do the safety briefing etc. Will be very pleasant.

This morning was the standard saturday affair, breakfast, coffee, reading the papers. We eventually got up and walked the dogs. We then walked into town via ‘Forbidden Planet’ where much tat was bought. When walking back through the city centre I could hear a voice, ‘Tim, tim’. This is normally something I seriously try and ignore and it’s normally some poedo who banged me when I was thirteen. But when we eventually went into the Hipprodrome booking office he caught up with me, there in front of me was a friend who I had on Facebook, but who I actually hadn’t seen for the best part of 25 years. It was Adam Lukas, or ‘Spex’ as he was known. We had a chat, it was nice, but he was with someone even more special, ‘Jane Gilcrest’, Del’s mum, who I hadn’t seen in the same amount of time. She was looking well, which was nice to see, as she cared about me more in that time of life than my own mother. It was fun to talk about old times for a few minutes. We’d all moved on, but for five minutes we were sixteen again, we had some good times, never to be repeated, but they were good times.

Tonight we ate at the Swan, not the best menu they have ever done, but nice food none the less.

Had just about enough this week. Spent most of the day with people moaning at me that I wasn’t replying to them, they don’t seem to appreciate that there are only two of us supporting around a hundred people, and everyone is a priority and every problem is ours. They can all generally fuck off. I was pretty much stuck working on something I know nothing about and at the end of the day what I’ve done on it has made no difference at all so was a complete waste of time anyway. Conferences are fun, but they take it out of you mentally, today was very hard physically, I’ve walked lots and been to the gym etc. So this weekend its time for some ‘me’ time, everyone else can bugger off.

So just back from a two day conference. All I can say was that it was in London, with work colleagues. We ate lots and got very pissed. Most of it was quite dull and it was difficult to stay awake, some bits were indeed useful though. Managed to get some nice walking in though, walked to the station and then from Paddington to venue which covered a fair bit of London, then walked back tonight, in the rain. Had a nice bath. Tomorrow will no doubt be very frustrating as I’ve had two days away from work, so there will be some mass panic about something.

So got going this morning without any problems, which was odd as it was a Monday. Ended up spending all morning fixing some animation tool. Took Sasha out on yet another nice but cold day. Did lots of other bits in the afternoon. Walked to Combat. Came back and transferred the new white, that’ll have to sit for about ten days now. Talking of alcohol that’s it, challenge finished, one month of complete sobriety complete. Quite pleased with that. Time to put the wind fridge back on.

Oh, I phoned mother yesterday and said I’d booked the helicopter for the day before her birthday, depending on the weather of course. I explained the route, the response I got was typical, “Oh I can’t fly over my house then?”. There are rules and regulations and one of them is a ‘land clear’ rule, so hanging around over a built-up area in a single engine aircraft is not allowed. Obviously crossing the Severn and flying past the suspension bridge and Concorde is a bit of a let down if you can’t view your shitty bungalow with a knackered fence from 1200 feet. I can’t wait to give her the list of CAA rules, which include absolutely no loose items in the cockpit and that includes handbags.