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?

Finally got round to checking everything in, did the last round just before I knocked off, so probably broke lots. Another nice and fairly warm day (for March). Sasha got a nice long walk, Dillon just got fisted. My teeth whitening stuff arrived, I’ve gone for a slightly stronger mix so I should end up with teeth like Rylan Clark after a few weeks. Went out for a run, had shower, now tired. Time for a film tonight me thinks.

Started off well, trying to isolate old D3D11X code which is now depreciated. Rewrote a load of stuff to do with texture loading, it’s all tidy now. Went back to the console and found a load of stuff which just didn’t work and never has, so ended up re-writing all of that as well. Then got sidetracked by a bug on the original game where we actually had a GPU crash dump for. Walked Sasha. Walked to the gym, did Pump. Good to see the gym is back to normal and completely empty. Weather not looking too wonderful this weekend, so may be a bit of Geocaching and lots of video editing to do.

Started vaguely on time. First job was to split a load of code up between two platforms, it’s almost readable now. Next job was to do an upgrade to DX11.1 and still retain compatibility with Windows 7, that was more of a challenge, getting there though. New iMac arrived, that can sit in the box until the weekend I expect, no time at the moment. Walked Sasha. Did a home check for two cats. Went for an eight mile run.

It’s Monday, I still really can’t get the hang of Mondays. Work was going nowhere so rang the vet, got Dillon in in an hour. Boss tried to talk to me, nothing was really getting through. Took Dillon to vet, they are not going to operate but I have to poke his bum with cream for the rest of his life, good job I’ve got a bulk load of rubber gloves. Another lovely day, so Sasha got a nice walk as well. Walked to gym, did Combat, Laverne’s stalker was there, god is she useless. Came back and found the bug I’d been hunting for six hours, cured a number of problems. Fisted Dillon, ate salad.