So yesterday was all about food and drink, a lot of both were consumed. Very nice lunch at The Swan, great evening with my sister later.

So I decided to work today in thinking that I would not be disturbed and magically I wasn’t. So everything I’ve been thinking about since Thursday I implemented, tested and checked in. Only one minor moan from an artist and I even managed to sort him out as well. Walked Sasha, weather wasn’t too bad lunchtime. Took a short break early evening to walk down to a new Geocache, found someone there already signing the log, so always nice to meet a fellow cacher. Came back and did a bit more work and then finished quite early. Had a quick shower and downloaded my new FCPX plug-ins, I’ll need to look at the tutorial videos for them really. Gave Standard Life a call, didn’t think anyone would be there but answered straight away, looks like pension has been setup, but money is still currently in my bank account. So quite pleased with them so far. So normality will resume tomorrow and everyone will be annoying me again.

Today was a bit of an odd day. I knew the weather was going to be shit, and it didn’t disappoint. Had breakfast and lots of coffee, read the papers. Walked Sasha, although it was rather brief as storm ‘Kate’ or whatever the fuck it was called was heading in. I then had lunch and proceeded to spend the next god knows how many hours going through clips of the last USA adventure to turn into trailer for the new one. After I’d spent long enough we did have a bit a crises to do with taxi’s. Organising one’s social life can be a total pain in the ass so normally I just don’t bother and don’t have one. But tonight we’d been asked out so I though I’d make the effort. Anyway, that all got sorted, so suited and booted we headed out at about 8PM as the taxi was half hour late as he didn’t have a clue where he was going. I had to direct him to the venue, which didn’t end up being as packed as I thought it would be. It was the ‘Blue Lagoon’ on Gloucester road. The last time I’d been in here was about thirteen years ago, it hadn’t changed, you still stuck to the floor and it was still filled with an eclectic mix of very odd people from the local area. It’s still I find rather overpriced. Half of Tesco’s was there, so I was a bit pork chop at a Jewish wedding. The band performed a rather bizarre eccentric sound check and then pissed off for a pint. When they got going though I was really impressed, they pulled out a couple of Green Day numbers during their set plus a really good version of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’. We bailed out at 11PM, the taxi was waiting, this one knew where he was going. An odd evening all in all, we most do it all again in about ten years time.

So glad I took today off, the weather was just spectacular for March. Gave Sasha a nice long walk, even took Dillon out, okay, his wasn’t so long. Had a light lunch and then headed out. Dropped off a cake box at my sisters and then headed out for a couple of Geocaches. A truly beautiful day. Got back with the sun still shining and it still feeling warm. Sat down, had a coffee and watched a bit of telly, then had a bath. Pizza time and then early bed I think, I’ve walked over fourteen miles today. From here on, the weather just gets shit.

Not the earliest start of the week, but I’d already done enough over time anyway. Spent basically the whole day sorting out yet another DX buffer locking issue. How the hell it worked originally, well actually it didn’t some of the time. Weather not great, Jamie and I walked both dogs, but it wasn’t exactly long. Went for a run this evening in quite a pleasant drizzle. Ended up working almost nine hours, so almost up to 100 hours overtime this year so far. Still thinking about bloody buffer locking now. I’ve got tomorrow off anyway, weather due to be nice, so will get outside and do something.

Today was a bit weird on the work front. In one fowl swoop I saved half the total vertex and index mesh buffer memory. So was quite pleased with that. Jamie was off getting his next tattoo. Walked Sasha. I contacted Ben about Friday, but no go, so may work it instead. Walked to the gym, did Pump. Came back and went through all the pension stuff again. I was trying to get hold of Re-assure to pay into that pension pot but seems more hassle than it was worth. So looked up the Standard Life pension as I have eight hundred quid in that one. It isn’t in the best of funds. I then did a bit of digging on their site, found I could actually do my own pension and pick and choose my own funds. So I found a fund which was very similar to the one financial advisor bloke was recommending, it’s 0.6% total management charges but if you invest over twenty-five grand you get a 0.3% discount. So total management fees will be 0.3% on a 70% shares portfolio. All set up online, shoved ten grand into it, hopefully that will be set up in a couple of days. I’ll then transfer the other pensions, or part of the other one anyway, into it. Updated my investment prices for the first time in years, pleased with those results as well. I need to spend the weekend putting my pensions into Microsoft Money so I can better track them.

Woke up after Jamie had left for work. Got on with it, had a bug left over from yesterday but solved it fairly quick. To be honest a one day job took two days, but that happens sometimes. I had to pop out lunchtime and see the financial advisor again. He’d produced a very thorough report. His recommendation was to take out a new pension with Aviva and transfer my old pensions into it plus a lump sum. All looked interesting. This evening, after a run I wen’t through all the figures. The old pension provider gave growth forecasts for the usual 2.4% and 5.6%, I also have the same forecasts for the new Aviva one. This is where the figures just don’t add up. If I take the 2.4% prediction and just whack the lump sum on at the end, it’s actually greater than the new one’s total fund. Further looking into it, it’s all down to charges. Aviva charge 0.4% to manage the fund. But this guy wants an additional 0.7% annually to basically do bugger all, this is on top of the grand to set it all up. I’ve thanked him for the report, which cost two-hundred and fifty quid anyway, and said I won’t be pursuing it any further. No regrets on the report though, I had no idea how my existing pension compared to any new ones, and as it happens whoever sorted it originally, did a fairly good job.

Started the morning still with the bizarre issue of the coffee machine not completing its scaling cycle. Thankfully it still worked anyway. I had a plan for work today, and it being a Monday of course none of it actually worked. By ten thirty at night it still wasn’t all working correctly. Plus there were a load of other issues as well. Nice day, walked Sasha, walked to gym. Laverene was obviously still dying of old age so Nick did it instead. He choose an interesting mix of music, it was all special for a good reason, you could distinctly hear the beats on all tracks which means he didn’t lose timing. Okay, may be a couple of times.

I did solve the coffee machine issue. It was actually the water sensor playing up. I should have realised earlier that it was using all the water and then coming up with a temperature error. I did a lot of Googling and found that it was caused by the sensor being wet. So lots of towelling later it was all working again. We live for another day, with coffee.

Didn’t have a great nights sleep, still work up and had coffee and breakfast for three. Started the iMac screen calibration using the spyder. Then went down and fixed the car glove box which had broke (the damper thing had come apart). By the time I’d done that the screen was perfectly calibrated, it’s quite significant the difference it makes. I then headed out to find a Geocache I couldn’t find last time, found it this time. Came back and had a light lunch. Then spent the next few hours editing a video. This iMac is certainly a lot faster than the old one but is suffering from lack of memory at the moment. Took Sasha out for a walk. Transferred the wine, attempted to descale the coffee machine, but appeared to have buggered that up at the moment. Yes, very pleased with this machine, about double the price it should be, but I wouldn’t ever look at my mega PC and think ‘that looks beautiful’, this on the other hand, is a work of art.

A great Saturday morning always starts with a couple of cups of coffee and breakfast for three. A great Saturday morning does not start with a text from your mother saying her fencing panels had arrived. Sarah text me for some help, it was pretty good actually, I think between the three of us we had the job done in under ten minutes, which meant we could be out of there in fifteen. Walked Sasha and then we were heading into town, but couldn’t be arsed so went to Cribb’s instead. Picked up a magic mouse for the iMac and Jamie got a touch pad for his. Came back and finally set up the new iMac, restored from backup, took ages so walked Sasha again. There was an ancient estate car which pulled into the RAC obviously lost, I called him over. English wasn’t his first language, in fact I don’t think English was his seventh language, I think he was Romanian, one thing for certain, his wife wasn’t a looker and had a gob on her like the PA at Glastonbury. I tried to ask him where we was going, eventually I got, ‘Sturminster Newton’, he had a fucking long way to go. I tried to explain how to get to the motorway, his wife was now at boiling point, eventually he just waved at me and fucked off. Half hour later I saw them again, still touring round the industrial estate. You just can’t help some people. Came back, iMac all installed. New one has both a mouse and a trackpad. Everything appears to work, I’ll start playing with it with some video editing tomorrow. Had a bath, watched the Grand Prix qualifier. Coverage was fine for Channel 4. Qualifying format was bloody appalling, what a car crash, without an actual car crash, put it back to what it was.

Felt bloated, not really surprised. Had a good work day actually, stressed to fuck all morning as everything I did yesterday of course fucked up. But, by a very late lunchtime everything was sorted. Felt like the arctic out today though, very cold. Walked Sasha. Walked to the gym, did Pump, didn’t stay with Laverne as she was coughing and wheezing everywhere. Did a bit more work.

Got an email from Apple for my new iMac, it was the certificate for three years of Apple Care, which was nice, considering I never paid for it. Wonder if I can get my dodgy old mouse replaced?