I grew up in the middle of the country and only ever saw the sea twice a year on holidays. After nearly five years living just a couple of miles from the beach and seeing the sea in the distance everyday on my drive home from work there is still something awesome about it. I can sit and stare out to sea for hours and just let my mind wander where it wants to. Yesterday on the way home we stopped at one of the bars on the seafront for a drink and sat in the window watching the waves break over the pier. I suddenly felt surprised at my life as it is now. I can't remember what I expected life would be like at this point but I'm pretty sure it wasn't going to be like this. I almost stopped and changed thoughts, scared that if I thought about my life in any detail I wouldn't like it. But then I realised that put simply I am actually approaching 30 with a successful career, buying a house with the woman I love and living the life that I have made for myself. The scary details are the bits that other people worry about - that I'm buying a house with someone else yet there is no guarantee of a job here in two years time; that the person I love is a woman; that the woman I love is old enough to be my mother.

But I'm happier than ever, and these worries are not my worries.

Shopping

I hope to God that this house buy doesn't fall through as we have spent all weekend browsing shop after shop looking at kitchens, bathrooms and bedroom furniture. After four hours in Ikea we think that we have decided on a kitchen and a new set of wine glasses.

Victory at last

We may not have got any medals in the curling or on the piste but oh how todays Calcutta Cup win for Scotland makes up for it.

Note to self

When sneakily watching the curling on the BBC website at work, don't leap
out of your chair and shout 'yessssss' when David Murdoch makes a double
takeout to take three points in the 7th end and make the score 6-5. Yes I
know USA are in the lead, just, but there's two ends left! It's just too
exciting!

Phew!

After a sleepless night spent chewing fingernails we heard first thing this
morning that the offer has been accepted! I thought the first offer being
quite low would be rejected so am doubly chuffed because we can now afford
to do everything we want to make it into our dream home. We can't quite
believe that after almost a year of talking about it, we are actually
proceeding with buying a house! Is it too early to be looking at kitchens
and bathroom suites?

Wahay!

House and Home

The saga of the house hunting may be about to come to an end. We have finally heard that we can get the mortgages we need and have decided on a house that we both absolutely love. It's the right size, right location and although it needs some work will be stunning when it's done. So, we have just put in an offer and are now waiting on the edges of our seats to see if it will be accepted. It's quite a bit below the asking price but considering all that needs doing we think it's fair. If we have to go any higher we will be stretching our budget to the max to get everything done the way we want it. Just a case of wait and see now, so fingers crossed!

Money honey

Barclays bank have today announced record profits and are being criticised for the amount they are making from charging customers. I would just like to stand up and say I think Barclays have got it about right. When I went briefly into the red recently they wrote and told me that they would waive the charges since I usually keep my account in good order and indeed the money they took from my account went straight back in. I'm fed up of people thinking that they can have something for nothing, spend money that ain't yours and you're gonna pay for it, that's life. (I know it's not always that simple, but this is a 'must have' society - what's wrong with waiting and saving to getwhat you want? It makes it much more exciting)!

Phew - this wan't supposed to turn into a rant but I feel better for getting it off my chest!

I was going to prattle on about other things but I've forgotten what now. So think yourselves lucky and thank you for your time.

I don't like mondays

I knew it was going to be a bad day when I just couldn't remember the key
pad number to get into the lab this morning (I have worked here for over
four years).

And I know funding is tight around here but it would be nice to have some
heating on - it is still winter after all. Brrrrr.

And I just know that with the rate at which I'm working today I'm not going
to get away in time to be home for the last womens curling match this
evening

And it seems that in the mornings I either have time to make lunch or make
breakfast. Today I did the former and ended up eating it by 10am. So now I'm
off to get an soggy sandwich filled with unrecognisable filling. And coffee.
Coffee will help!

Update at 11.11pm: So the GB women got knocked out despite a few exciting ends there tonight (you would have thought that with Rhona Martin shouting at them like that they might have played better throughout, she'd scare the crap out of me)! Then to top it all off I went and missed all but the last 5 minutes of ER!

Cor blimey - Roll on Tuesday!

Life's choices

Everywhere you look it seems that there are 'experts' telling us that we are all going to die young because we eat the wrong foods, drink too much, don't get enough exercise, have stressful lifestyles etc. Then this morning there was an article saying that we aren't having enough babies to look after us and fund us as we all live to a ripe old age.

Does this mean that people who don't have children to pay for them in old age should live an 'unhealthy' life while those who have lots of kids should do all that they can to ensure that they live until at least 100 to give their kids a purpose in life? Better still, if I don't have kids can I keep up my love affair with food and wine?

Ice Ice Baby

A quiet week blogging because I've been busy at work (watching the live streaming of the Olympics on the BBC website). The only problem I'm having is that the last couple of Winter Olympics have been in different time zones meaning that we had to watch most of it late at night. Not only do I have to miss most of the events this time round as I'm at work, but some of the stranger events aren't quite so fascinating to watch over breakfast as they are after a few beers.

I wouldn't mind having a go at the luge (but not the skeleton - the head looks very vulnerable hurtling down the ice in front at great speed). And as for that snowboard cross, it's almost as exciting as the curling (but fancy celebrating winning before the finish line and the falling over - I'm sure that won't keep cropping up on 'what happened next')! I'd better go and make sure the beers are chilling as it's GB vs Norway in the curling in half an hour!

VD

We didn't bother with valentines day, decided it was a load of commercial claptrap (or as the wife put it so much more eloquently, it's pandering to a capitalist society)! My excuse is that romantic gestures are for all year round so why should Feb 14th be special (although if a dozen red roses, a large box of chocolates and a cuddly toy had come my way this might have been an altogether different post). Having said all that we did enjoy a nice meal, a bottle of fizzy wine (left over from the PhD celebrations, not bought specially for the occasion) and curled up on the sofa in front of the telly.

Talking of last nights telly, I was getting prepared to rant all about last nights edition of 'Holiday Showdown' and the bloke that thought that homosexuality was the root of all evil but also thought it perfectly acceptable to take his kids on a shooting holiday, shooting pigs and firing the biggest gun in the whole of Texas. Fortunately after he got to know the bisexual couple who took him and his family to San Francisco his opinion seemed to change somewhat. So he has been given a reprieve. Or perhaps I'm just in a good mood.

Every cloud has a silver lining

I have spent most of the day at work preparing for a meeting this afternoon
with lots of pretty diagrams ready to pass on information from my trip last
week. Then 10 minutes before the meeting I find out that actually the person
I was supposed to be seeing isn't in today. And my work computer has gone
bang on me and so I'm relegated to a steam powered machine. At least it's in
a quiet corner and I have figured how to get the sound working so I am
happily ensconced in the curling - GB lead Denmark 2-1 after 6 ends!
(although some of the sounds coming through the earphones are bizzare when
not looking at the pictures)!

Bricks and mortar

So as the Olympic opening ceremony continues in the background we're left thinking about our housing situation. The idea now is that we keep this one, remortgage to rent it out to raise the money to buy our little palace. Renting out the wifes house will pay for itself and be a nice investment for the future and we can still afford to move to a bigger place in a nicer area with a garden. When it comes to buying we have managed to narrow the choices down to two, doth need work but one is slightly bigger than the other. The smaller one is owned by an old lade, it's very old fashioned and needs a whole new kitchen and bathroom and general updating but it's clean and well looked after. The other one has loads of space but is really tatty and dirty. The kitchen and bathroom are modern but are falling apart and we would rearrange the walls upstairs to make better use of the space. While my heart says one and my head says the other I'm trying to picture them both finished. I thought last summer finding a house would be easy but in reality it is a lot harder, or perhaps I'm just being picky!

The few days away was opportunity for both of us to think about the best way forward and having talked about it today it looks like we have both come up with the same idea.

Back

It's nice to be home after an eventful few days elsewhere in Europe. The work was intensive, early starts and late nights interspersed with 'networking' (I hate that word and dislike doing it even more) so was happy to be heading home. What didn't help was missing the connecting flight and spending a sleepless night on an uncomfortable bench in the airport. Especially after the flights stopped and there was no more plane spotting or people watching to do. I had to be up at seven yesterday morning and managed about half an hours sleep this afternoon - 36 hours without sleep for someone who is used to at nine hours a night isn't pretty!

It was a nice feeling to finally step off the plane at our local airport and really felt like I was home. Even nicer less than an hour later to be sitting at home with the wife and a decent cup of tea.

Off

I'm off on a trip, business rather than pleasure unfortunately so things will be quiet here for a couple of days. Why whenever I say I'm traveling light do I always end up with a bag that weighs a ton?

Oh flower of Scotland...

...when will we see
your like again!

Everyone I have spoken to has laughed at my 'joke' about Scotland doing the Grand Slam and winning the Six Nations*. Who'd have thunk that we could beat France (who incidently were described at one point today as being second best in the world behind the All Blacks) and be in the top half of the table with last years champions bottom! No wooden spoon for us this year. Okay, I know there are still four games left but with the new coach Scotland have turned themselves around (and next year is world cup year). To beat the favourites for the Grand Slam today after winning just one 6 Nations game in two years, tis a pleasure to be (semi-)Scottish.


In other news: I'm feeling broody having spent time with Tiny Step-Grandkid this weekend. Although they don't do much in the first few weeks of life, there is something special about having a baby fall sound asleep in your arms. (And I need someone to educate about the wonders of Scottish rugby).

*Rugby union tournament played annually between Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy. Grand Slam = winning all five matches; wooden spoon = bottom of table team. See this for a fuller explanation of (one of) the most exciting tournaments around.

Fun and games

With the Six Nations starting this weekend and the Winter Olympics starting on Friday I'm feeling sporty. Being a fan of the underdog I'm backing Scotland to take the grand slam and top the 6 nations table and at least one skiing medal from Torino. And here's hoping Rhona Martin and the girls can curl their way to gold again this time round. Sweeeeep!

One way to see in the new year

I have just come across a discussion forum for a particular technique I'm
using at work and was surprised by the information bar at the bottom of the
page:

Most users ever online was 21 on Jan 1 2006, 02:01 AM

I know us scientists are supposed to be an anti-social bunch but even I'm
not that sad!

ERrrr

I'm not really into computer games, apart from Theme Hospital that is. And occationally flight sim. Oh and I recently discovered Lemmings online. But I don't tend to go out and buy computer games very often. Until this week when I discovered ER, the game, as in ER one of my most favorite telly programs. And complete with a review that said that as I love Theme Hospital I will love this too! I was hoping it would arrive yesterday while I was 'working from home' but alas it landed on the doormat this morning after I had left for work. So for the last two hours I have been trying to figure it out - I feel like a 15 year old boy with the latest computer game, I'll have to be careful or I could end up locking myself in my bedroom and playing all night! Fear not, the wife is not feeling neglected, she is playing games too!

We really should get out more!

Inbreeding

A child whose parents are both scientists are more likely to be autistic so says this article. Apparently, people such as scientists, engineers or mathematicians are 'systemizers' and the genes which are responsible for making such people analytical "may also impair their social and communication skills". A Cambridge prof suggests that systemizers "tend to be less interested in the social side of life, and can exhibit behaviour such as an obsession with detail - classic traits associated with autism" (I wondered why people keep telling me I have an obsessive personality and I'll take my computer and a quiet night in over a social function any day).

"Professor Baron-Cohen said the rise in autism might be linked to the fact that it had become easier for systemizers to meet each other, with the advent of international conferences, greater job opportunities and more women working in these fields".

Which conferences does he go to? A conference is the last place I would think of looking for a spouse (one of us in the family is quite enough thank you). Or perhaps I'm just happily settled with the wife, who fortunately is not a systemizer but is a rather good poet.

Disorganisation

One day I will learn to be more organised. My car tax expired yesterday, the MOT today and insurance tomorrow and of course the woman at the post office won't give me a new tax disk without having new certificates for the other two. The insurance is sorted but I'm hoping the garage around the corner can MOT my car today. I daren't drive to work though as I have multiple near misses on a daily basis and it's only a matter of time before I and someone/something else collide. Knowing me that time would be today and my insurance would be null and void. Next January would someone please kick me up the arse to get sorted sooner!

Update: The garage around the corner managed to fit us in and my little car passed with flying colours so I'm all legal again.


For illustrative purposes only - my Ka is rarely this shiny