First day of pseudo-enforced annual leave. Its good to not be at work, especially since the atmosphere gets more fraught by the day. Trip to Bristol was productive and entertaining. Must find way to quell laptop's absurdly loud startup beep before attempting library work again. Later went for a very fine meal at the long neglected Bombay Spice, via a range of local hostelries - being the first official celebration of my recent appointment. Predictably good food and wine. Lots of fun playing at being grown up. Absolutely exhausted however. A good day.
It was always going to be an odd day. Woke up late, read mail and visited #gnome for a bit, if only to calm my nerves. Interview at 11:30. Felt it went well - my interviewers remembered me from Dec 2000 - which was either very good or very bad! Back to work, and a rather strange day there too. I'm hardly going to be there at all this week, which doesn't help a bit. Prepared to relax with good TV (for a change), but was interrupted by telephone call. I've got the job. All very confusing after that. Once again, I've been very lucky indeed. Not sure who to thank? Relieved, pleased and determined. Finally able to find people to tell later, which is nice - since they've suffered an eternity of moaning from me since pre-Christmas when my current dept. decided to tell me how tenuous my position was. Sadly, its likely to be too late to save my GUADEC trip, but its opened up a few other possibilities which are far more fundamental. Oh, and 600 downloads of gtkdial is equally cause for celebration (or in fact, worry!). Especially amazed since my spelling in the announcement URL was way off!
Finally got gtkdial 0.4.1 out. Uncertain where to go next with it - I'd like to forget the horrible mess of old code, but then again people keep sending patches and translations, which keeps me interested. Hmm. Last night, went to Burnham and saw Tim & Paul playing at the Crown - including a quite stunning bass solo which completely caught me unawares. Afterwards, was introduced to W.B.Yeats' Ephemera, which was strangely relevant. Preparing for tomorrow's job interview - trying hard to be calm, but the desperation of the situation is more than clear to me.
Brief lunchtime visit to an ex-workplace confirms that there is a dark cloud over the whole department at present. Dental troubles begin again. Brief visit to Bristol, mainly to find the Lambchop CD. Returned to a very strange and funny evening which reaffirms my faith in many ways. Discovered a new cheese in my local supermarket which seemed (in my vaguely drunken state) to be called 'Bridal Terror'. Dental problems become more unpleasant as the evening wears on. Much work done on gtkdial 0.4.1 release today - recent patches from Auke Kok and Ovidiu Constantin have got me interested again. Expect release action soon....
Lost::MikeGTN
I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.
I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.
