danielpeake.com Blog

The weather here has been quite interesting recently – basically it was raining loads every day (250% normal rainfall in November). Then things changed, and got alot colder. Last night was -4.4C (24F) in Reading, the coldest it’s got so far this winter, and cold for England anyway.

Then we got some precip moving across us, and this is the view out of my office window now:

Snow, in Reading!?!

It’s not the best photo in the world, but still, show’s we’ve had snow. It’s currently still snowing now. It puts me in the Christmassy mood. So, anyone for mince pies?

So, you know how it goes.  You’re in a rush to get out of the door for that important meeting you’re already slightly late for. You’ve brushed your teeth with hair gel, and your hair is minty fresh.

You then start looking for your keys. Your room isn’t tidy, but it’s not messy either. (Oit – my room wasn’t messy, ok!) So there’s only 3 places it can be:
1 – On your desk *somewhere*
2 – On your floor *somewhere*
3 – In your clothes from yesterday… *somewhere*

Number 3 is the easiest to start with – nope, nowhere to be found. Then try number 2 – oh THAT’S where my missing bowl is. Hmm, it’s growing things. Nope, no keys. Not even anything that rattles.

Then try number 1. This is the trickiest bit as I have several disorganised piles relating to things I’ve yet to do, am doing, or have done and haven’t put away yet. Anyway, my keys are nowhere to be seen.

Repeat for 20 minutes.

Then discover your keys are actually in Place Number 4 – your chair under one sheet of paper. Sheesh.

Then run all the way to work, and have a slightly out of breath meeting. It’s a recipe for success, with a side order of EPIC FAIL. Doh.

In other news, I didn’t notice my local has a pub quiz on Sundays. Me – not notice a quiz!! Oh Nurse, I must be sick!

Also, Accumulate! Season 2 has started. 3 shows out of 7 are now up at www.ruon.org/ondemand – please let me know what you think.

Doom and gloom has descended upon us all, the Freshers are here! Having said that, I caught their freshers flu before they even arrived – nasty sore throat. Ahead of my time – that’s me!

I took a walk up on campus earlier today to look at the Freshers moving in, superior in the knowledge that I wasn’t hot and sweaty (too much!), I don’t have to move anywhere and my accommodation is nicer.

I must admit, given Argos don’t really know when they’ll be able to deliever my chair, I’m tempted to open up a seat-stakes about when it’ll arrive! Boom boom!

Poor jokes – that’s me! I’ll be off then.

One, it just takes them a bloody long time.

The light bulb in my bathroom went today, and I was the only person in the house at the time. I thought I would thus change the light bulb.

Step 1 – Find spare bulb. 20  minutes.

Step 2 – Unscrew the three equally spaced screws on the metal frame of the light, taking care not to drop the frosted glass in its centre. 2 minutes.

Step 3 – Drop screws. 2 seconds.

Step 4 – Replace bulb. 1 minute.

Step 5 – Fit frosted glass back into metal frame after rubbery edge comes off. 5 minutes.

Step 6 – Hold metal frame to the ceiling with one hand, get screws in other. 2 minutes.

Step 7 – Realise screws are still on the floor. 1 second.

Step 8 – Get back down, get screws, repeat step 5 after a bit of muppetry, and then hold metal frame back to the ceiling. 10 minutes.

Step 9 – Get irritated. No time at all.

Step 10 – Get all three screws in SOMEHOW with only one free hand. 10 minutes.

Overall time, far too long.

In other news, someone did win the Euromillions that I dreamt about! They just weren’t a meteorologist from Reading. I did win £6.50 however, so that’s a whopping £3.50 profit!

Argos have given me an update on my chair delivery date! It’ll be “after October 11″ as that’s when they get some stock from the supplier. I am not a happy bunny about this. I might develop arthritis before the chair arrives, and thus not be able to enjoy it!

Argos, step on it! That’s your delivery time, not my chair. Which you don’t have anyway. So you can’t. Oh.

In relation to my previous blog post, the postcard with NO on it was correct. The chair did not arrive today. I can only hope it arrives in a speedy fashion.

I’ve just watched Derren Brown attempt to glue people to their seats and make them unable to stand via subliminal messaging. It was a fantastic show, and whilst it worked on some people, it sadly did not work for me. I will be trying again on the +1 channel, as I want to see if it can actually work.

He’s massivlely trended (top trend!) on Twitter, and here are a few of my favourite twitters (sorry I forgot to write who wrote them, the copyright belongs to them):

Derren Brown never stuck me to my sofa but I’ve just realised I have 6 numbers between 1 and 49 imprinted on my arse

Stuck on sofa. Can’t move after Derren Brown. Oh, hang on, I couldn’t move before he came on either. That’s a veggie vindaloo for you.

I know not everyone was affected. I’d like to experience it, so I’ll be watching it over the next hour.

Whilst I remember, I dreamt (a couple of nights ago) that one meteorologist at Reading university won the entire £85 million jackpot on the Euromillions this evening. So I’ve got two tickets… fingers crossed!

I’ve been looking for a nice comfy chair recently, so that I can sit on it. Preferably I’d own the chair so that I can keep it in my room, which is always useful.

So, I bought an inflatable black bobble chair from Argos. Luckily my Dad insisted on getting a foot pump for it, which is handy as otherwise I’d have ended up with a half inflated chair and a half inflated lung. Still, hospital food is slimming, I hear.

Having blown up the chair, I discovered it to be:
(a) Too big for my room
(b) Ridiculously uncomfortable

So, I went back to Argos and decided if I was going to get a chair, it was going to be a very nice comfortable chair worth spending some money on (£80 rather than £15).

They helpfully informed me that the item was delivery only (which I knew), and asked me to book a slot. I picked Friday 18th Sept between 10am and 2pm. Sadly I got a call this afternoon to say that they were out of stock and wouldn’t be able to deliver for another few days. I then got a text later on this evening saying “Thankyou for shopping at Argos. Your goods will be delivered tomorrow between 10 am and 12 noon”.

So, will there actually be a delivery tomorrow? Answers on the back of a postcard. I’ll be writing the word “NO” in quite large letters. But we shall see…

I’ve just been to my local shop and I’ve bought a carton of “Red Orange Juice”. Whilst the meaning is slightly ambiguous, it clearly means “the juice of red oranges” rather than “orange juice that’s been coloured red”.

Having said that, I’m sure one of those words in the title is not needed. You can’t get rid of “Juice” – that’s what the product is! You can’t get rid of “Red”, that’s what the colour of the juice is and also the type of orange. So I think that the “Orange” must be superfluous.

So, I’ve just been so my local shop and bought some Red Juice. And as juice goes, it’s very tasty Red Juice.

And the nosebleeds always seemed to be whilst I was sitting down near a red tablecloth. Bizarre!

I’m now back after an 8 day holiday, covering 2138 miles in 34 car-hours (average 62.8mph!) at about 25 miles per gallon.

Whilst playing a game of darts, my aunt couldn’t help but throw the darts underneath the dartboard with surprising regularity. My nan then gave some eternal wisdom that she should “throw up a bit”. I never knew sticking your fingers down your throat could improve your dart playing, I think I might try that some time.

It’s been back to work since Wednesday, but in a couple of weeks time I swap my regular work pattern to be a Teaching Assistant for the Isle of Arran fieldcourse that 3rd year Undergrads go on. I was assessed on the course three years ago, so I’m really looking forward to the change to (punish) educate the current 3rd years. Later today I’m buying some decent walking boots for it.

Also this week, I copyrighted two game show formats. Excellent.

My time here in Chamonix is rapidly coming to an end, and I’m starting the two day journey back tomorrow.

It’s been an eventful couple of days – we now have our car back with a new ignition coil. It was serviced by a garage owned by – I kid you not – a Mr. Bastard. Excellent! Still, the car sems to be behaving itself now, so we can actually get home.

It’s quite hilly here in the Alps, something to do with the mountains I expect, and I think the changes in altitude (ranging from sea level to 2500m) may have had something to do with my three nosebleeds in the past three days. That and picking the crusty bloody bits out of my nose, possibly.

Today we visited three countries, France, Italy and Switzerland. We’ve walked through dozens of cities (mostly in France) so my flip flops most definitely smell. Naturally, having spent most of my time in France, I sent postcards from Italy.

I’ve been following the weather in the UK and have not been surprised at how rubbish it’s been. Hopefully it’ll get better when I return. Until then, au revoir…

I’m now in France, and thoroughly enjoying it too! Firstly, I must say that French keyboards are weird. They are basically the same as standard English keyboards, except the Y and Z keys are swapped and the punctuation is all over the place.

I’m now in the shadow of Mont Blanc (ok, I will be from about 5pm when the sun sets) near the resort of Chamonix. Me and other members of my family drove down in one car over a couple of days, staying overnight in a lovely large chateau. Sadly, the car has now broken down, so we’re a bit stuck.

We’ve called the RAC or AA or Dangermouse up to try and rescue us from the predicament, and latest news is that the car will be taken to the nearest dealers garage (100km) this afternoon, where they’ll know more soon.

So how on earth are we going to be able to cope for an extra few days with the fantastic French weather, 25C sunny days, friendly locals, great food and an amazing four storey house with 52 inch TV which also has British telly? It’s going to be absolute hell……. yeah, right! See you whenever I decide to return….