Dear Diary...

This is my diary. How things are. Or something. Please note that the diary is archived month by month, so feel free to click the links for the archives (which now will go back five years maximum):

2024
Dec
Nov
Oct
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019


Sunday 27th October - Prints, Pie and Perspiraion

It was a very nice little wake up call from The Cute Little One, who wanted me to do a little jigsaw with her and see if she could complete it - and she did, several times. It was more I think that she wanted me to be involved with any games that she was playing and was keeping The Love In My Heart occupied too. In fact, The Love had this card game with some matching pairs of cute cartoon cats, which she really liked and was thoroughly enjoying whilst also keeping an eye on watching Brave on Blu-Ray too.

The Halloween outfit was fab too - a red and black witch dress, complete with black hat. The Cute Little One and her parents were heading into the city centre later for some Halloween fun, and when we were in the car dropping her off at her parents' place later that morning, we did see some inflatable little monsters that were atop the New Century Hall and a building close to Manchester Victoria station,so that was something decent to spot and be able to get her involved with (as well as spotting bee buses!)

With The Cute Little One back all safely dropped off, with hugs for both The Love In My Heart and me before we departed, we were off to John Lewis in Cheadle. When The Love was at the Paul Weller gig last week in Brighton, she got this poster which was designed by an artist, with a line drawing of Paul in the various towns and cities he was gigging at, and the Brighton one with the pier etc looked cool. I did check the website and it transpired that the prints on the site were A2 paper sized, and sure enough, checking the print, that was A2.

We thought that to keep it classy, John Lewis might have the right sized frame. They did, but only in a champagne colour and not black (which would stand better with the white backdrop) and so we noticed a little button to call to get a partner (as they call their staff). One of them came over, The Love explained what they were after and off they went, and sure enough, they found the A2 frame in black! Excellent, and there was 20% off the frame too and so that was all good. The Love put the poster in the frame later and sent me a picture of it - it looked really good!

We also then headed off to Cheadle Hulme and after a nice mooch in the homeware shop Homebird, we went across to Platform 5 for some well earned lunch. It was relatively quiet in there for whatever reason, but no complaints from us as the food was spot on. The Love had the Wexford chicken which had plenty of creamy peppery sauce along with vegetables and chips and mushrooms, and really did hit the spot - as did my steak and ale pie. And yes, it was a proper pie. Excellent!

After a stop off on the way back at The Gateway for a drink it was off to Piccadilly. Because of various works I had to get the train to Crewe via Northern (who cancelled lots of their trains today, boo) and then there pick up the train from Liverpool to Euston which stopped there. It did head back via Stoke and then onwards via Rugeley, but I guess at least it was running. The carriage was boiling hot though and was glad I had picked up a bottle of water at Crewe to keep me going. In fact tune of the day resembles the heat - 92 Degrees by Pop Will Eat Itself, with the key line of "this heat's unreasonable" - no kidding!

Saturday 26th October - Saints and Strictly

It was nice to be able to get up and have some breakfast in good time and also for myself and The Love In My Heart to have a good chatter about all sorts with a coffee first thing. I did decide to put on the new Dream Theater single Night Terror (tune of the day) just to give her an idea of the sort of music I was enjoying when I saw the band live last weekend. Surprisingly, she didn't object too much to it which says to me it maybe wasn't as heavy as some of their other tracks, which is a plus. Although the full 24 minutes of Octavarium might be a little too much.

We had visitors later as The Cute Little One, along with The Cute Tiny One and her parents, arrived to head over. We were having The Cute Little One overnight, although it transpired that one of the reasons, for having a decorator over, had fell through. However, we didn't want to disappoint her of course as she always looks forward to spending time with her Nana and me, so we wanted to give the parents a bit of a rest. With that all sorted, we waited in for The Love's sister to head over, and we were keeping The Cute Little One occupied with some games and puzzles.

The three of them headed over to Asda whilst I went over to the Etihad Stadium, as Manchester City were taking on Southampton in a Premier League game. A win would send us back top before the Arsenal v Liverpool game tomorrow, and with the Saints bottom of the table, it may have seemed a formality. However, no one told them that and they actually played pretty well all game - giving us a hard test and at least attempting to go forward and have a go instead of sitting back, and for that reason they deserve a fair amount of credit for keeping going.

Manchester City did get an early goal from Erling Haaland following a Matheus Nunes cross in the fifth minute, but we had a few chances that were not converted to put the game in a more comfortable position. Indeed Southampton hit the bar at the end of the first half and had some good chances during the second, so they definitelty were a lot more positive than say Arsenal who parked the bus and wasted time at every opportunity a few weeks ago.

Back at The Love's place, The Cute Little One was putting on her ham toppings for a pizza, whilst The Love also had some bolognaise on the go along with pasta and some garlic bread, which was very nice. The Cute Little One was enjoying the likes of Lego Friends on Netflix on the telly before we turned over to Strictly Come Dancing as it was the Hallloween special. There were some good routines on including a rather nice version of the Addams Family from Jamie and Michelle, who really have grown to be excellent in the last couple of weeks. I think The Cute Little One was getting ideas for her costume too.

Friday 25th October - On A Roll and a Rope

It was a very quiet office today (understatement) as a number of people had headed over to Las Vegas to help with an event there happening next week, and with some schools having their half terms this week (and some next week, so some getaways may have been planned) that did mean that there were less people around. That did actually allow me to get on with a few things, such as physically rebooting some of the cameras in the meeting rooms and checking if they were now getting the correct IP address which was being statically assigned based on their MAC address (done at the networks end so it's DHCP client side). That was starting to work nicely.

In fact, for all ten meeting rooms, I now had the correct network addresses for all of them, and for most of them I was able to log on to the web interface with the user name and password that I thought that they would be, which was something at least. Seven were good, three still didn't want to play ball. However, I had some positive email conversations with our AV supplier, and they mentioned there is a way of connecting the camera via USB (or USB-C) and then running the vendor's configurator app, and that should allow a reset of the web interface password.

Okay, I thought, time to give that a go. And sure enough, that appered to work when connected to the camera via USB-C, I could see its configuration and indeed also then be able to reset the web password. I did that,then logged in with its default via its web interface, and then asked me to change the username and password, so could set this as I wanted to ensure it was all good. It worked nicely and by the end of the day at least I had managed to get all ten of the cameras configured so we could see their IP address and indeed log on to their web interface for any other changes needed. Nice.

That was a small cause for celebration as I left the office and it was off to Euston to head on the 1913 train to Manchester Piccadilly. I did head over to the Captain Flinders pub first of all and have some tea - nothing too fancy, just a chicken burger with some chips and a soft drink, but that would keep me going for later. I had forgotten the iPod too so no tunes for me on the way up to Manchester either, and would have to look out into the darkness outside and see how that worked overall.

The Love In My Heart came to collect me later on, and due to something happening close to the station, had to divert around the back, which does at least mean we can get out of there sharpish. I did also note that Top of the Pops had been on BBC Four earlier including Rocket from the Crypt and their fab single from 1996, On A Rope, so that just has to be tune of the day for me to be honest. We snuggled up with Brian the cat and watched Celebrity Gogglebox for Stand Up 2 Cancer, and all was well with the world - at least for now.

Sunday 20th October - Fairgame Upgrades

The Love In My Heart and I had had a reasonable night's sleep after the gig last night, and so we both got up and I put on Strictly Come Dancing from last night so we could watch it on BBC iPlayer. I have to say that Jamie and Michelle smashed the paso doble massively, and they were deservedly joint top of the leaderboard along with Montell and Johannes' Caribbean inspired couples choice, which to be fair they smashed also. We had a feeling who might be going home, but of course that is down to the people who vote!

We got ourselves ready and changed, and were off to Canary Wharf this afternoon. A few months ago for my birthday the parents of The Cute Little One and The Cute Tiny One got me a voucher for a place called Fairgame, but it never arrived in the inbox. They chased it and I got the voucher once they did, and so had used that to book a game session for myself and The Love for today at 1.30pm. So we took the Overground to Canada Water and the Jubilee Line one stop to Canary Wharf, then followed the shopping centre around to the exit for the purple train, as we knew that was close to Fisherman's Walk where Fairgame was, so easy to find really.

Once you check in, you get a printed card with your name on. You can this the games' card scanners and basically get two goes per game, the best of the two scoring towards your final overall total for the nine games on offer. As we had arrived for check in on time, the games start 30 minutes afterwards, so we got a drink and had a good natter before we started, spotting how some of the games may work and seeing also if we would be able to be good enough to win one of their teddy bears, a bit more adult than what you would see at the funfair. We also recognised it from a bit on Strictly last night as Tasha and Aljaz visited the same place!!

Once the second check in to scan cards for the games were done, on we went. We tried out Dunk the Junk, where you scooped balls up to go into a trashcan the opened and closed, and I got the hang of the timing and did okay on the second go. The Love then smashed the next one, Pantry Pandemonium where you threw a ball at targets to knock them over. We did the basketball one Alley Hoop, The Love was good there, and also the whakckamole fun of Gopher Broke. Some didn't work so well - we got confused with the lack of what to hit with a target on Phoney Island because you couldn't see your shot, and on Space Race, despite my timing being spot on, hits failed to register, so that was frustrating.

The best one of the lot for me was Final Furlong, which was Kentucky Derby (yaay) but the faster you completed the course, more points you get. If you completed within a certain time, a teddy bear was yours too. I beat the other competitors on the second game so was super happy with that. Circus Freak was also fun to shoot water into targer holes to raise the clowns up into the air and out of sight, and Lawn of the Dead was skeeball with scoring targets, which The Love panned me on! We both played very well though and it was overall very good fun.

In fact, as they had three street food vendors in the venue itself we stayed there for lunch. I went for a Rudy's pizza (well why not?) and that was delicious, and The Love went to the burger place and got a cheese and bacon burger with fries which looked very good. You collected the food from outlets (a bit like Freight Island in Manchester) and the drinks were delivered to the table from the bar, so that saved a faff around! Kudos also to the venue for having a free cloakroom where you just gave the mobile number to them to hand in, and they tagged it electronically, then you got it back later, and woked really well.

We then took the purple train to Farringdon and changed there for the tube to Euston Square, and a nice pint at the Crown and Anchor was a good way for us to end the weekend together, before The Love was heading home. I felt sad but at the same time happy that we had both had such a good time together, and certainly being out and about helped massively for us to enjoy. I just wish it was easier for her to come down more often but I know Brian the cat would have a few miaows in The Love's ear to say abot that, that is for sure.

The day was not done for me yet though, as I was off to the O2 to see Dream Theater. I had wanted to see the band live but myself and my former colleague Andy at a place I used to work at both said that once Mike Portnoy had left the band, it wouldn't be the same. Indeed, I stayed to the word and didn't go to Manchester Apollo when I could. Fast forward to 2024 and Mike Portnoy is back with the band and so it'd be the first date of the 40th anniversary tour, and the first date with him back on drums. For that reason alone, I thought "I need to go" and got a seat up in the gods of block 402 for around £50 including booking fee - realistically the most I'd want to pay for a gig.

I took the tube from Warren Street (not Euston, as they were not letting on passengers to the tube for some reason) and then changed at Waterloo for the Jubilee Line so back past Canada Water and on to North Greenwich for the O2. After walking around the place and using the loo, I scanned the ticket and went inside, and up to the fourth floor gods. I had been noted that the band were starting at 7.25pm due to the strict 10.30pm curfew the place has, so was ready (no support of course.) I did note though that the seat view meant with one of the two screens on one side, I wouldn't be able to see where Mike Portnoy would be drumming. Gutted, but hey, I'm here to listen and watch, right?

As Dream Theater came on and went straight into the rather epic opener of Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper, I noted some fans walking down past me going mental with what looked like something in their hand. I looked up behind me and there was a woman from the O2 venue staff. It turned out that there were some spare seats in the lower tier, with side view, as a complimentary upgrade, and you could have them - for free. Well hell yes, I was having that! It made more sense because only two blocks in each side of the upper tier were open with the rest curtained off, so maybe sales were less than expected or slightly more (so they opened the top which may not have been planned for.)

So as that song was continuing, it was down to the first, headed all the way round to block 113, and down to row T, and was sat next to two proper fans who were surprised at a few of us heading along. I quickly explained what happened and then we were all able to cheer the songs. My view was a little side on, but I had a clear view of all the band with the only obstruction being a bank of cables from floor to the screen, so much better than what I had, and I would take that all day long to be perfectly honest. The set continued with two acts from Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From a Memory.

They were not mucking about either, and soon were into the territory of playing the outro first and then leading into the killer bass intro to... Panic Attack! Yes. Memories of Rock Band 2 flooding back of course. That was great, as was Barstool Warrior after that and a nice rendition of the demo version of Hollow Years, first time for years that one. Part one of the set ended with Constant Motion being particularly fast paced, and As I Am really giving off those heavy vibes. One thing I did note was that people were comment on James LaBrie's singing - and I have to agree, it was nowhere near 100% in a fair number of parts. For some that may have spoiled proceedings, but if you want to see the classic line up, those are the breaks...

The second act was utterly epic, and possibly one of the best hours of live show you'll hear and see. Starting with the new single Night Terror, that made the place feel all happy, and had This Is the Life and Under a Glass Moon to continue the theme of epics. But then after Vacant, did anyone expect the lengthy instrumental of Stream of Consciousness to be so good? It was amazing, and that really showed off the band's talent especially. And then in the background Jordan Rudess starts playing the continuum instrument..

A look at the two blokes next to me and we were like "They're not, are they? They bloody well are! YES!" and we knew it was the full twenty four minute album title track that is Octavarium. And wow. Just wow. It was unbelievably good with everyone smashing it and really showing how good a track it is with all its parts. I was admittedly having some happy tears near the end: this song for a number of personal reasons reaches out to me emotionally and to hear it played so well just gave me goosebumps. Tune of the day of course, and just to end the main set on that note, wow. Amazing.

The band were not done yet and had some nice surprises for the encore before my dash to the tube and Overground home. Two parts of Act II from Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory including a rather lovely version of The Spirit Carries On, before then going headlong into Pull Me Under, with the crowd singing along and belting it out during the chorus especially. It was a good way to go back to their earlier years to end what was a superb set. I could just hear people going "oh wow, they did Octavarium!" and "Not heard Stream of Consciousness live for years!" so definitely made a good impression. I can be happy knowing I've seen them live, and what a night.

Saturday 19th October - That's Brighton Entertainment

The Love In My Heart was heading down to stay for the weekend, and we had a busy one planned. Months ago I managed to be able on the pre-sale for tickets for Paul Weller's latest tour, and looking at the dates Brighton was doable, as it was a Saturday, we could get a late train back, and it would be an early date on the tour to go and see. I had got us tickets and hoped that where we would be sat would be good - always difficult to know unless you have been to the venue before of course. The Love's trains were being delayed due to Avanti Worst Coast being bobbins as usual though.

That thankfully didn't stop The Love getting to London Euston and heading over to East Croydon, where I'd meet her so we could head back to my place to drop off her stuff, and also so that we could both be changed and ready. She was putting on her blue dress from Oliver Bonas that she looks so lovely in, with tights and boots (because by the coast will be windy) and rocked it out with a denim jacket, and I did my bit to look reasonably mod with the Fred Perry shirt and jacket I'd normally wear anyway (so comfortable all round). We got to East Croydon and got the train tickets (Two Together Railcard plus Thameslink only super off peak for the win.)

Once we did the fast journey down to Brighton, we took a walk along the North Laine district and all its little shops, which The Love highly approved of, especially as she liked the fact some of them had nice homewares and also clothes for the little ones too (we definitely got ideas) and it felt quirky and nice as ever. We then crossed to The Lanes and headed for the seafront, where it was busy with people off to the pier and the beachside bars also. We spotted the Brighton Centre venue and headed to a pub not far away for drinks and food, and like a fair bit of the city on a Friday night, had hen and stag do groups all around.

We got back to the Brighton Centre and were soon at the first floor bar with a drink. The beer was nice but the price definitely wasn't - £8 per pint incidentally - so that was going to last me some time. We found where the balcony was for us (the West Balcony) and had a couple of sofas to relax on, so we did that before getting to our seats. And a good view too - side on in a squareish venue but with no people in the way and a clear view of the stage and what would happen. No complaints there whatsoever, and it was then up to the bands to see what they would do.

On first was the support act Liam Bailey, and he was a bit of a mix of reggae, dub, and punk, sometimes together. I do think he was trying a little too hard to impress the audience, which he didn't need to, as the band were tight and played really well. The bass player particularly was on it an underpinned all the music well. It was all reasonable and you could tell that he was hyped opening for Paul Weller, but maybe a little bit less trying too hard may be useful for future shows.

After a break on came Paul Weller, and for around the next two hours, it was a pretty excellent show all round. The band as ever were spot on with Steve Cradock blistering on guitar (The Love was not sure about his white outfit look mind you) and you could tell that the sound had also been worked on to be very good. The Love was particularly happy as early on she got three songs from The Style Council era: Have You Ever Had It Blue, My Ever Changing Moods and Headstart for Happiness. Although it was also good to hear tracks from his recent album 66 given a good live airing, so the likes of Jumble Queen, Rise Up Singing, Nothing and an early opener in Soul Wanderting really did set the scene well.

The two hours did feel like they passed by quickly. always a sign for me of a really good set. The audience got Start! (an old classic by The Jam) and you can imagine all the mod diehards loving that big time of course, including me, as that reminded me of indie nights in Manchester. Into Tomorrow was very welcomed by The Love as well as Peacock Suit, and there was still time for two encores - the first of which had a wonderful version of You Do Something To Me as well as The Changingman and Wild Wood, so definitely ones from the solo career that have found a good place in people's hearts.

But, the second encore. The roof of the Brighton Centre may have come off if he played more than the two songs by The Jam during that. That's Entertainment was really nicely done, so tune of the day for me (as I love that one) and then to get everyone rocking at the end, Town Called Malice. That was just a great way to end it and twenty eight songs in all. No fancy lights and video walls, no lasers, no mucking about, just Paul and band rocking it, as more gigs should be in truth.

We headed back up the road towards Brighton station and we stopped by for a drink at The Grand Central, which was rather cosy and lovely and had some good beers too. We saw that they had the F1 qualifying on, so watched a bit of that in there before leaving to head to the station next door and to get the 0002 train back. And what a train - it was definitely full of people on their way home after a night out, with lots getting off at Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath, but even at stops like Horley, people were heading off. We got back around 1.15am, and it had been a long but great day!

Friday 18th October - Vanguarding

I had a day off work today as I needed to use the annual leave up before the end of December, and thought it would make sense to take a day where I could get on with the next section of the Vanguard Way walk. This was primarily because the buses to the start and from the end of each section are not massively frequent, which means timing is everything. I got myself up and ready and was setting off to Westerham first of all, so caught the 119 bus to Coney Hall, and switched there for the 246 into Westerham, which means going beyond the M25 on a red London bus, and not many routes do!

Once at Westerham I had time to get the 594 bus to Limpsfield Chart, being dropped off at the Carpenters Arms where I ended section 2. I walked past St Andrew's Church and across the road down to Trevereux Hill, and walked gradually downhill. It was then when I noticed the mist and fog, which would be with me for most of the walk. It had been foggy overnight and definitely for me it was a case of meaning some scenic images once I got to the bottom, and started to head over a stile across one of the fields that ran by an Oriental pond. The fog and mist with the trees was just gorgeous.

I headed across over to a gate and crossed the Kent Brook over a narrow little bridge. It was then over to another farm where a swift left turn took me onto another path across some fields, with some lovely sheep to keep me company at the far end before I then headed across to a path with a forest on one side, and spotted a couple of people walking their dog - and they didn't realise they were on that walk and were interested how they could do a few miles more in future. I did see a group of walkers in the distance who were heading along, around half a mile behind me, so they were doing the same route. Definitely, popular.

Once I then crossed another field slightly uphill, it was then following across another set of fields and sheep right at the end gate who were all calm and quiet, before taking a dirt track that was pretty muddy in places down to Troy Town and Troy Lane. That lane did reveal a proper nice spider's web at the end before I'd turn right and head on a road over a railway bridge. In fact you could see the Redhill to Tonbridge line, but the Hurst Green to Uckfield line runs in a tunnel underneath both, which is pretty dramatic all told.

It was then following a path that would have in years before taken me towards a golf course, and some muddy paths at that. Not any more though - the golf club remnants are there but it's all abandoned and the fairways long overgrown, but was following the path anyway to head across over to Coach House Lane where the walk ends. I could have looked at the next section, but four miles or so was enough and the next section is over ten, so save that for another day, especially as it had been so muddy and didn't want to get worse.

I walked back towards Edenbridge centre and checked the time - would I have enough time to get the train? Just about as it happened, including getting a ticket online on the phone because the ticket machine decided to freeze during the buying process. It was good to be able to rest and relax on the way back and it was also a good walk well done. Had I not got the train, the 236 bus to Westerham was around half an hour's wait (they are once every two hours and only four a day) so natually wanted to get back and then be able to sort the pictures out too, so made the most of the day. Tune of the day is Sheep by The Housemartins, due to various encounters today!

Wednesday 16th October - Sorting Stuff

It was a day for working from home, but also in between work getting things sorted for the next few months. First off, I had an email from the landlord asking me if I wanted to renew for another year in the flat. That was an easy decision so I agreed to that via email and just will await the contract so I can get that all signed and witnessed and be good to go for another year - which will be my tenth year in the flat on the bounce. Now that might mean I am a creature of habit, but when it's a nice place and in addition I have a secure and warm and cosy place, it wasn't a difficult decision.

That sorted, I went out at lunch time to get some cards for forthcoming birthdays and other occasions. The cunning plan was to head to WH Smith to ensure that I could use my 25% off cards voucher in there, which really does tot up and make a difference, especially when you're getting several cards at once. In fact, I ended up getting five, four of which were for birthdays in the next few weeks. I worked out that between October 17th and November 20th, there are eight birthdays in total - two I'd already got cards for in a package I posted off earlier this week - just the way they all fall.

I finished the lunch break off smartly, after checking in with both work earlier and The Love In My Heart, and got the trains sorted for the Christmas break. I plan to head up to The Love';s place a day earlier and that gives me some more time beforehand - and with The Love having the festive period off as well as me, and with a Man City home game to work around in the New Year (and no New Year's days trains either) it means I can get both trains all booked and sorted - even better when you have accumulated enough loyalty from Avanti West Coast's Club Avanti thing to get a ticket for free. Winning.

After work I tuned in via DAZN's online portal to watch the Manchester City Women's Champions League away trip to St Polten. It was a more difficult game than anyone might have thought, even with a fabulous strike from Alanna Kennedy earlier on, it was 1-1 at half time, with the Austrian side taking the lead early in the second half. City bounced back though and after a well taken finish from Aoba Fujino (her first for City) a well worked corner from Lauren Hemp found the head of Mary Fowler and it was 3-2, which it stayed til the end and three points for City which was a good thing.

I relaxed later by blasting out the new Dream Theater single Night Terror, which is brilliant and tune of the day - and a way back to their older ways too. Mike Portnoy is back on the drums which means the classic line up has been restored, and wow, doesn't it show. There are so much cleaver parts played throughout, with the superb keyboard solo from Jordan Rudess about two thirds of the way in really does shine superbly. If the rest of their album out next February is like this, I am going to be in for a treat!

Sunday 13th October - Out in the Town

After some breakfast and a fuss over Brian the cat (and he wanted lots of fussing, believe me!) we decided it would be sensible to head into the city centre and do some shopping. I had remembered the gift card for HMV that I've had for a while and it would make sense for me to use it to get some CDs I've been after for some time including the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album. It wasn't long before a tram arrived to whisk us into the city centre of Manchester, where when we got off The Love headed to Primark and me to some record shops.

In fact, I headed to some of my old haunts first, just in case there were CDs there for less, so Vinyl Exchange first off, and plenty of music I could have got, if I didn't already own some albums. As usual, plenty for everyone and the only minus point was I didn't get anything - not for the lack of trying. I had a good look in Piccadilly Records across the way too to see any new indie releases that might tickle the fancy, but nothing too earth shattering I could see here just yet.

I met up with The Love outside Primark as she had been in a long queue in the homeware section to get some bits for both home and work, and then we walked down Market Street. I did go into both Uniqlo and TK Maxx to check out some trousers but none were really floating the boat, so parked that for the time being and went over to Fopp. There were some CDs in stock in there but one I really did want on top of the Nick Cave one wasn't in, so headed over inside the Arndale to HMV, and well, hasn't that changed a lot since I last went in?

It definitely feels to me as if the store carries less stock of both CDs and albums, and are going more with the likes of figures, some K-Pop stuff, and all sorts of accesories and other things rather than their core of music. That said, I did at least find all the CDs I was after, so ended up using the gift card well to knock down the price of the three albums I did get - the Nick Cave one of course, but also the new album Gary by Blossoms, and one colleague at work recommended to me (and I'd heard part of the album online) the new Blood Incantation album Absolute Elsewhere, which is intense to say the least!

Flushed with that success and after The Love In My Heart had been into Flying Tiger, I thought "let's go into Next and see if I can nail a pair of smart trousers" and amazingly, I did. I found a pair that felt really comfortable to put on and also fitted really nicely, and in addition looked smart. With that and a new shirt coming, I've got a smart outfit for a future occasion all sorted, so felt flushed that was done. And what do you do? Celebrate by having lunch in The Bank, that's what.

In fact, I had the Nicholson's Pale Ale first of all (which for some reason was supposed to be free with food with a voucher from The Love In My Heart, but that didn't play) and then the lunch of a really nice chicken and mushroom pie with all the trimmings too. The Love's Sunday roast looked utterly fab too. In fact we had plenty of time on our hands so we stayed for another drink, which meant I could have the Gipsy Hill Hepcat too, so that was rather lush to say the least. all in all, a rather fab afternoon and not rushing for a train really was a nice positive thing really. Tune of the day is the title track to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Wild God album, it really is majestic!

Saturday 12th October - Strictly Saturday

After having had a relatively okay journey on the train up last night (my original train was cancelled, but was able to get the one before, and arrive sort of the same time anyway) and having fussed over Brian the cat a fair bit due to his Mummy being out with her sisters at the theatre (a good time was had by all) it was nice to be able to relax in the morning, have some breakfast, and generally potter around a little bit too, and as the weather had got a little drier, Brian the cat of course was wanting some playtime on the patio outside, so he was more than happy to do so.

After getting ourselves changed and ready we headed out for the afternoon and it was over to see my Mum, and was good to have a coffee and a natter there. Mum had had her laptop upgraded by my brother, and there were two little things she wanted to check in with me on to make sure it was all set the way she wanted it to be, and it didn't take too long to get that all operational. The good thing was that it didn't take long to sort it all, and that was one happy parent being able to keep in touch with her friends and so on - so a positive to be helpful where I could I guess.

We decided to head off, and noted the mass of traffic taking a short cut down the road where Mum lives. We found out later that there had been a traffic accident on a main road not far away, meaning to avoid that accident, traffic was being diverted, and so down past Mum's. Once we got to the other main road all was good and we headed over to Wine and Wallop for a well earned drink. In fact they had the St Austell Korev lager on, so that was a different choice for The Love to have (because no Camden Hells on.) We were fortunate to be undercover outside as the rain decided to arrive and lash it down for a short sharp shower.

That stopped, and we headed back via the little Tesco near The Love's place for a few bits, and set off to settle in with some nice tea (The Love spoiled me with a special Scotch Egg to start, followed by some lovely chicken, potatoes, vegetables and a nice sauce too to go with it, which went down really well.) That was all good as we could then watch Strictly Come Dancing later, where there were some performance which were really good, notably Montell Douglas and Johannes Radebe as well as Tasha Ghouri and Aljaz Skorjanec.

It is always interesting for me to see which music is being used to interpret the dance with, and for me it was especially fun as Shayne Ward with Nancy Xu was keeping it Manc with Sub Sub's classic Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use) from 1993 (being Mancunians of course we remember it) and Men At Work's Down Under for Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell (quite apt I guess!) - and best of all for The Love especially, Pete Wicks and Jowita Przystal doing The Jam's iconic Town Called Malice, so tune of the day definitely for us both there - but we did miss the "gets dashed against the Co-Op" line!

Thursday 10th October - To The New Overlords

A considerable number of us were in the office today, as later on in the afternoon there was a meeting being held by the new company who have taken the company I work for over, with all the legal and financial side being completed yesterday and seemingly without hitches. Naturally, there will be some transitional periods as we all move forward, so it made sense to make sure that I would attend in person (as numbers were limited, so got the reservation in early) and knew that it'd make more sense to be able to see the event there rather than watch it online, as you do tend to get fatigued with online meetings after a while.

I knew the way to the office where the meeting was held, which is close to another part of central London, so set off in good time with a few colleagues to make sure we would all get there. In fact as we headed closer to City Thameslink station and to then walk towards Blackfriars Bridge, we had some more colleagues join us, with a couple stating that if I was walking there then they knew I'd be going the right way, so made sense to follow the way I went - which is a nice back handed compliment really. And before long we had made it, and was shown to the 19th floor of the building - that made me think immediately of the Paul Hardcastle classic 19, so tune of the day for that one.

We were welcomed with some drinks - being sensible I went for the 0% Estrella Galicia rather than wine or full strength beer (professional mind here) and then we gathered around where the meeting was taking place. The CEO of the new company gave a talk and explained how it will work moving forward, with one of their offices close to Victoria being the main base for parts of us that were taken over - and the fact they will be leasing another full floor clearly does show some of their intentions well. One thing that did put me off slightly is that a few times he said "we only want people who want to be here.." hinting that if you didn't like it, there was the door. I wasn't the only one to pick up that vibe either.

Still, a few questions were asked and most of them answered. One of the interesting ones is that someone asked if dogs were allowed - and that was a no. Most landlords to be fair in office buildings don't allow any pets in, and we were lucky that one of the buildings had it negotiated for a couple of dogs to be registered and in,and the current building we are in has no restrictions at all (primarily this was to help people with mental health too as a number of single people got a dog during COVID especially to keep them company, and have been close to their pets ever since.) So at least the answer is known in advance anyway.

There were some nibbles and drinks afterwards, and I did head back towards getting the train home later thinking that there are still some more questions than answers, but at the same time this is to be expected at this time. All I can do is basically ride the wave of what's to come, and see where things lie for me. Knuckle down as much as I usually do, show everyone what I can do, and then see what happens from there. Options are of course being kept open for very sensible reasons.

Sunday 6th October - Geesy Gander

It was nice to have a good night's sleep, although The Cute Little One had had one and woke up a little earlier, meaning The Love In My Heart was up with her too and making sure she was being kept occupied. We did have some pancakes with bacon and some fruit (obviously not both of those together) for breakfast, and it was nice to relax for a while. We were going to drop her off back at her parents' place later on but we thought it might be a nice idea to head out and feed some of the ducks as well as then go for a coffee or some cake, so headed over to Ancoats.

Once The Love had the car parked, we walked over to New Islington basin, and once past the queue of people at one coffee place, we walked over to the small bridge just near Flawd, where some of the ducks and Canadian geese were gathered. Two headed over in the water to see what we had and once The Cute Little One and I broke down the bread and placed it in the water, they were happy, was was a swan too. More geese could see it was feeding time and headed over, but some got out and were a bit loud, scaring The Cute Little one a bit and she ran off somewhat a little frightened for them being so close.

We decided that a drink and a cake was the way to calm things and so a bit further back we had passed a nice new place that was part of a beauty and haidressing place, and they had lots of lovely cakes and some posh coffee. I had this nice blueberry cheesecake and The Cute Little One had this rainbow unicorn birthday type cake which looked gorgeous (and she demolished it down) along then with some coffee an orange juice. In fact the Makers Market was on too so we walked around that and quite a few of the stallholders remarked on The Cute Little One's ace dress, and saying how fab she looked, which of couse she was more than happy with!

We headed back to The Cute Little One's parents' place, and they were all good. It gave us chance to see The Cute Tiny One too and she was being utterly adorable, with lots of cheeky smiles on her face and a look of happiness too. It made me feel nice when she got my finger and held it and wouldn't let go, with happy smiles and a giggle as I said hello - that was so lovely, honestly. We had a good natter for a while, and then The Love and I headed out towards Salford Quays later.

The Love wanted to head into what was the Lowry Outlet Mall (now called Waterside) and go into The Works for a book she was after. Interestingly, most of the top floor was empty with only a couple of units close to the cinema open, but the bottom floor was better - and she got what she was after. We decided as it was still potentially raining a bit to head into the new bars close to the quayside, that did mean a view of Old Trafford (ugh) but you can't have everything I guess. We did have some nice food and drinks in 11 Central, and we'd definitely head there again - Seven Bro7ers beer for one!

The Love dropped me off at Piccadilly later and I was on two trains home tonight, both East Midlands, due to Avanti engineering work, and so it was off via Sheffield to St Pancras. That worked out all well and on time too with me listening to some tunes on the way down to ensure the time felt faster a little bit. Tune of the day the epic 24 minute title track Octavarium by Dream Theater - it really is epic and full of drama, metal, strings and so many changes of style and mood, which I can recommend highly.

Saturday 5th October - Fortunate Against Fulham

I was off to the Etihad Stadium this afternoon as Manchester City would be taking on Fulham in the Premier League. I did have a ticket and in the second tier of the North Stand, which offers me a decent view and the chance to have some food and drink before the game. Naturally I hugely miss going with my friend of course, and I consciously don't go the area of the ground we used to sit together at, as it still feels a little painful for me. However I know he'll be watching from up there and cheering the boys on as ever, so that is always a little bit of reassurance.

Having got in the ground, it was time for a pie and with that sorted, walked down to one end of the North Stand where they have this ace machine that you pay for your drink, put the recyclable cup in and out pours your drink, super smooth too. I did of course last time out have the Black Cab Stout, and none of that in this machine, so Asahi it was, which is reasonably okay at least. I did see the latter part of the Liverpool game at Palace on the telly before taking the seat and then settling in for the match.

Manchester City started well but so did Fulham and they looked dangerous going forward. We could have scored through Erling Haaland but instead it was down to Fulham who broke down the left, and the ball was backheel chipped across by Raul Jimenez for Andreas Periera to score from close range and take the lead. In fact Fulham could have been 2-0 up had Adama Traore had his shooting boots on (and his pace troubled us all game like he used to when at Wolves in fact.) I was just hoping for an equaliser, and from a clearance from a corner Mateo Kovacic blasted it in off a defender, but they all count, right? I'm taking that and 1-1 at half time.

City started the second half much brighter and after some good work from Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva down the right, the ball came across the edge of the 18 yard box where Kovacic sidestepped past one and placed a curling shot into the bottom corner for 2-1. An excellent finish and a rarity seeing him score two in a game - it hadn't happened for a very long time. City continue to press as did Fulham too, and Ederson pulled off some good saves to keep the score at 2-1 before a run from the wing and a strike from Jeremy Doku with some griddy action made it 3-1. Good job too because the Fulham sub Rodrigo Muniz clawed it back to 3-2 and we hung on a bit near the end.

Getting back to The Love In My Heart's place, I knew that The Cute Little One was staying over, and she greeted me from the patio and that was lovely. We soon were making some tea and she was engrossed with Brave (a great choice to be fair) and we had the tea together. The Love had got these nice little mini tubs of Haagen Dazs ice cream so I had the blueberry one and The Cute Little One had the one with mango and raspberry in - she scoffed it all and loved it, and was snacking later as the three of us settled in to watch Strictly Come Dancing before her bedtime.

As it was the movies week there were some good nods to some classic films all round - even with some kids' films references such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and more recently Barbie, with the pros also doing a routine dressed as minions which of course The Cute Little One adored. I liked the Wayne's World dance with Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell, they even got the headbanging Bohemian Rhapsody scene into that, so tune of the day most definitely. It was a nice way to wind down together and definitely for me so nice to see a happy cute little one too.

Friday 4th October - Train of Pain

It was off to the office during the day and it gave me a good opportunity to be able to look at a few things in terms of plans going forward, including some application packaging and testing, but also keeping an eye on what I had to do yesterday - release a new configuration profile from our antivirus vendor to ensure that it had all the latest things allowed by MacOS. Thankfully you get the profiles to import into JAMF, and it's a case of apply new, and then when all good, remove the old. Normally it works fine but sometimes if the timing is such that removing old happens first, it can need a reboot to get fully done.

I did have to chase a few people to ensure that was done, and with green ticks showing some nice happy machines, that made me definitely pleased without question. For me at least, it's always good to be proactive a little bit and make sure that we keep people in the loop, which helps us as well as helps themselves. It also does mean that the end of the week becomes much more productive which is a positive thing - and we had one of our AV folks come in and replace one of the boxes that does all the HDMI and USB-C stuff to connect to the television screens (as a power surge had killed the previous one.)

All was well until I looked at the trains for later and realised that there would be some delays. A signalling issue as well as some points failing between Watford and Milton Keynes Central means less trains that can run, or at least run slower and delayed, so decided not to hang around and head off straight to Euston to make sure I was on standby incase of any shenanigans. As it transpired, the train I was going to get, the 1913, was cancelled, but I could at least get on the one before, the 1853.

That in itself had delays as for some reason British Transport Police were all over that train when it got off - and eventually when we were all allowed to get on we could see the officers dragging someone away in handcuffs, who looked like he was giving people hassle. I suspect containment and keeping people safe was a sensible thing, so that can't be helped, and if nothing else reminded me of an episode of Channel 4's Hunted where they'd ambush someone at the station to get a capture.

The train took ages, and from Bushey just south of Watford to Milton Keynes, having already left some 15 minutes late, was around 45 late by the time it got to Rugby. That kept up all the way to Manchester with thankfully some good tunes for company keeping me going including the rather majestic Drown Me Out by She Makes War being tune of the day. I really wish that I'd just have one train journey that would actually run on time, but there you go...

Wednesday 2nd October - Compilation

I spent a fair bit of time at work today (and working from home too, so could fully concentrate without distractions) on getting together a list of machines currently not fully compliant. This was primarily so that we could not only chase those who were not compliant, but get an idea of how many were in comparison, that has to be said. For me, it's usually good to make sure that I have all the info available, so a report of all the management systems for Mac and Windows, a check of our inventory system to compare with, and in both cases I can cross check.

For Windows, there's three things to ensure good compliance at present - if the latest Windows update has been installed (an OS build number is in one report), if the inventory client latest version has been instaalled, as well as the latest version of the Windows management client. If all three are good - compliant, and if one of them isn't - not compliant. I could also add a filter view for overall non compliance, and for each of the reasons too which means we have some idea for some what made it not play ball, or it could be the other two of the three for example.

For MacOS it's a bit less difficult as they all have the same management client, so it's more checking for the inventory client (same as before) and also the version of the OS installed to ensure it meets our current security baselines. Again if both are met, all good and if not we can flag them. Once I had the list together, I could then work out a sensible plan of action, and in most cases that is to effectively do a nice mail merge together with the email that has all the info needed to ensure all is good - so for Windows for example, connect to the VPN to ensure connectivity to some systems, and then allow it to do its bit.

In a way, now there's a more focussed view on things overall, it means we can get to the nitty gritty of keeping everything nice. My plan is effectively that we hit a higher overall total for update compliance as well as being able to ensure machines are reporting in accurately as they should, but also this does mean that in future we've got a good overall sense of management - and being able to actually breathe a bit after some endless seeming activity with acquisition, split, rinse and repeat, it really does give you the headspace when things are calmer to focus a lot more - something I enjoy doing as part of the job with my analytical head on, as you can imagine.

It was then good to be able to relax for the evening and put on some tunes too and I decided that I'd play some albums I haven't put on for a bit, including Dream Theater's self titled album - and not their first one. I to this day still like The Enemy Inside and that has to be tune of the day for me - it just has a really good poweful guitar leading the whole thing and really holding the whole thing together. Of course my one wish came true at the back end of last year - having Mike Portnoy back with the band. Oh yes!