tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57868032009-02-21T14:56:50.395ZDear WithoLike "Blue Peter", with soul. Oh, and the occasional swear word...withonoreply@blogger.comBlogger444125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1116835954692684322005-05-23T09:12:00.000+01:002005-05-23T09:13:46.886+01:00Obsessed... withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1116585722978614802005-05-20T11:21:00.000+01:002005-05-20T11:42:02.986+01:00A moment of ZenI've only just read Wednesday's pearl of wisdom from my page-a-day calendar on my desk at work:"The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is "look under foot." You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think. The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own place withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1116493180037112562005-05-19T09:24:00.000+01:002005-05-20T10:53:57.946+01:00Witho is... dutifulTuesday night was a dinner party at the Headmaster's house with a variety of other teachers and their spouses or friends. The Head occupies a beautiful old, double-fronted, detached house on the school grounds, overlooking the cricket field in the foreground with the Blackdown Hills visible in the distance.There was a bit of a panic beforehand about what BF was going to wear. withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1116410706562756922005-05-18T11:01:00.000+01:002005-05-18T16:17:57.736+01:00Come on you redsThere’s always that moment of nervous anticipation before the event together with that nagging doubt. You almost want to feel those pangs in the pit of your abdomen as the day approaches. Whilst you know that all appropriate steps have been taken, you still wonder how you’ll deal with it if the worst were to happen. You try not to thing about it, but it’s there, in the back of withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1116274003071766662005-05-16T21:06:00.000+01:002005-05-16T21:54:13.526+01:00Station-aryAnyone who's spent any time in Taunton will involuntarily shudder when I mention Silk Mills Road. Because anyone who's spent any time in Taunton has probably spent a fair amount of their time on that road. Stationary. It is the proverbial bane of the Tauntonian's life.It's a handy road, linking the A358 in the North to the A38 in the South of the town. I use it every day on my way to withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1116171724989805222005-05-15T16:42:00.000+01:002005-05-15T20:03:33.206+01:00Sisters are doin' it...... or should that be: "Sisters have been and gone and done it"? Witho and big sis' after the raceI'm so proud of my big sister. She ran the whole 5km - the furthest she's ever run. She'd been training on the treadmill and before yesterday had only managed 4km. She started run/walking in November and, as a busy working mum, could only manage lunchtime sessions on the withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1115996328918733122005-05-13T15:52:00.000+01:002005-05-13T15:58:48.950+01:00Tomorrow...... I'll be doing this:More details here.Thanks to all those who sponsored me - I've raised over £250 thanks to you.withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1115892264302479032005-05-12T09:08:00.000+01:002005-05-12T14:12:22.186+01:00Sine, cosine, tangentIf you've ever seen what a sine wave looks like, you'll have also seen how my mood progressed through the course of yesterday.Starting from the middle line, there was a progressive rise in mood as I had an uncharacteristically productive day at work. I wrote an implementation plan, and solved a long-standing problem with an AS400 application which I traced back to a cheeky withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1115740178626427862005-05-10T16:38:00.000+01:002005-05-10T20:29:45.790+01:00Another string to my bowFirst things first, in the above expression, are they talking about bows (of bow and arrow fame) or bows (of stringed instrument fame)? That's what I want to know... amongst many other things, of course. *goes all wistful on mention of stringed instruments*Recently, I've been thinking of buying a 'cello and rekindling my "musicality". I haven't played one for *gulps* what withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1115640240474500772005-05-09T12:10:00.000+01:002005-05-09T15:14:52.800+01:00OscillationThe Witho/BF weekends oscillate between:going away, seeing friends, doing stuff and generally being busy little worker beesstaying at home, bumbling around like bumble bees and really doing very little.This weekend was of the latter variety.We started well on Friday evening, going here to see this. I found the film very engaging, mainly because it played with your emotions, pushing andwithonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1113482123272799972005-05-07T15:50:00.000+01:002005-05-07T20:00:00.136+01:00Re-crapHaving confused some of my newer readership with recent posts, I feel a recap of "Witho's so-called career" may be in order. And things being "in order" require an ordered list, so here goes:June 1995: Witho graduates from the University of London with a First Class degree in "French with Applied Computing" (don't laugh) and no real idea of what she's going to do other than "work in withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1115308730004164852005-05-05T16:55:00.000+01:002005-05-07T15:29:01.070+01:00Bargain!*adds to basket*UpdateSpot the difference: withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1115155908603961062005-05-03T21:58:00.000+01:002005-05-03T22:38:40.930+01:00Status AnxietyWhen I saw this book by Alain de Botton in WHSmith back in December I just had to buy it - it seemed to me that this phrase summed up the mindset I've developed for myself over the past few years. Now, I haven't actually read the book yet (it's on a girthy waiting list), but I won't let this be a barrier to coming up with my own interpretation of what the phrase means to me.There withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1115056976520629702005-05-02T18:44:00.000+01:002005-05-03T10:29:56.556+01:00Ippy dippy dation, my operation...... how many people at the station?Excuse my playground interlude. For some reason, earlier today as I was preparing smoothies for me and the BF (banana, apple, plum and raspberry, if you're interested), this little ditty came to me and I wanted to share it with you, my lovely, fluffy, sweet-smelling readership. It is - in case you are of the wrong generation, withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1114766643971216332005-04-29T09:57:00.000+01:002005-04-29T10:24:03.973+01:00Work, schmörkI spent most of yesterday meticulously debugging a program which turned out to be working perfectly. I'm not sure what had changed between it not working on Wednesday and it working on Thursday. The wind, perhaps...I guess at least I was "working" for *most* of the day, even if it was utterly futile.They've recently reorganised the department so that I now fall under the "Customer withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1114681113468378292005-04-28T10:28:00.000+01:002005-04-28T12:24:35.706+01:00A handful of songsMy work colleagues are getting to know my little foibles.As I stood in the kitchen making the tea and singing:"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie..."My colleague butted in:"You've seen my yoghurt in the fridge, haven't you"One of these.See a word, hear a word, find a song with that word in it. That's the way the Witho mind works...withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1114513760960851512005-04-26T11:13:00.000+01:002005-04-26T12:14:11.943+01:00Peaks and troughsThis was the trough.This was the peak. Literally!Once again, the Sunday run put right the wrongs of the previous Wednesday. Five miles through forest tracks accompanied by the damp, fresh smell of an English wood on a Sunday morning in spring.Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy. There were more uphill stretches than I've ever had to deal with before as we climbed several hundred withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1114424301844846972005-04-25T10:46:00.000+01:002005-04-25T11:19:14.053+01:00Nocturnal confusionIt is the middle of the night. I've just turned over and am facing the Big Fella in my state of bleary-eyed half-wakefulness, glad to note that it's not yet time to get up."Are you okay, love?" he asks. He sounds terribly concerned."Yes, I'm fine... why do you ask?""I can't remember""?"Not only can he not remember why he asked me if I was okay literally seconds earlier, he has withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1114251967301200922005-04-23T11:26:00.000+01:002005-04-23T11:57:54.776+01:00All the threesAbout a month ago, I drooled over one of these in a shop window in Bude: Today, as a reward for my age being divisible (with no remainder) by the numbers 3 and 11 as well as by itself and the number 1 (meaning presumably that I'm *not*, in fact, a woman in my "prime", though I was at 31 and will be again at 37...), the BF presented me with same.Once again, he managed to pick out withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1114115867170293992005-04-22T09:37:00.000+01:002005-04-22T09:44:57.393+01:00First salade niçoise of the year I like the way Hello refused to acknowledge the "ç" when I uploaded the jpg, changing the filename to "Nioise". Interesting...And before you say it - no, it hasn't got anchovies on it. They're perfectly welcome to go around being strangely salty, fishy and slimy, just not on any plate of mine, thanks! It's *my* version of salade niçoise, okay?withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1114078359454630242005-04-21T10:38:00.000+01:002005-04-21T13:26:15.033+01:00Learning pointsFootball overrides kittensSpecifically: showing BF a photo of some RSPCA rescue kittens at the very moment when Gary Neville is being sent off and Manchester United are 1-0 down to Everton may not yield the expected response of: "yes, dear, those kittens look lovely, let's go and get them immediately".Running is proving to be a bit more of a struggle at the moment. It has always withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1113986293803353702005-04-20T09:05:00.000+01:002005-04-20T11:09:47.116+01:00Fings what I have done which, apparently, make me BritishThings I've done in bold. My comments in red:Waited for forty minutes in the rain for a bus and then two come at once.Fought someone bodily for the last packet of butterscotch Angel Delight in the convenience store.Failed to find Last of the Summer Wine at all amusing. Or indeed, to have any point whatsoever.Danced with delight the morningwithonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1113815017129369532005-04-18T09:12:00.000+01:002005-04-18T10:11:14.370+01:00Do as you're told!"Buy Observer"I study my mobile's display questioningly. I remember putting the reminder in there a couple of weeks ago but I'm damned if I can remember why."Buy Observer"Now, I had, a couple of weeks previously, bought a Saturday Guardian (the sister newspaper to The Observer) to read on the train to Southampton. Maybe there was something in there advertising a feature which withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1113505114463650032005-04-14T19:43:00.000+01:002005-04-14T21:46:12.950+01:00Van SoloYou know how it is. You're on a roundabout - a big one with traffic lights on it. You come slowly to a halt. As you wait at the lights, your gaze wanders idly around. You sense movement in the corner of your vision. You turn and fix on the grey van to your right. A young, goatee-bearded man is in the driving seat. Nothing unusual there. Hmmmm, what's that... jiggling? What's he doing in withonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5786803.post-1113388577561805112005-04-13T11:08:00.000+01:002005-04-13T20:49:11.476+01:0024*7Trying to talk Helpdesk through AS400 screens at 9.45pm whilst in a noisy Thai restaurant with no access to said AS400 in order to figure out why some labels aren't printing in a paper mill a couple of hundred miles away is not an easy task, as I discovered last night.However, assisted ably by a finger in one ear and tightly shut eyes (trying to picture what the Helpdesk analyst could see), Iwithonoreply@blogger.com