Work politics really sucks. Technically the project is working remarkably well!

Since it's been a few days, I'll catch up the weekend while dinner is cooking. Saturday presented the first time S had something planned and I didn't since we've been here. It brought home for the first time in a year that I don't have many friends around here so nothing much to do! If it had been in Birmingham I would have gone to visit A&K or M&S but with everyone I know here either being from work or at the same training day as S I was at a bit of a loss. I decided to go to the Crosslinks training day to show interest in Ss future employer and was very pleased I went. It was a training day for those who will run holiday clubs for kids over the summer and was very enjoyable.

Sunday had a welcome lie in then round to Ks for lunch. I was playing trombone in the evening service which went well enough.

Bought a CD/DVD labeler from Tesco at the weekend which works remarkably well (except when you arse up sticking it on the disk).

I am so out of touch - I didn't even know who 'Rachel Stevens' was... till I researched a bit further and went 'Oh, that track was her was it... Ah'.

More feedback from an obvious source which made me laugh!

Today was a complete arse at work. Spent the whole day pressured to sort out a mess for someone else where by the time I'd done it they would have gone home and not used whatever it was I did... It was only down to bad management that it needed to be done in the first place! Oh well, I was in a bad mood when I got up this morning.

Which leads me nicely on to the next topic. I should say now that if you dont like football or are offended by bad language then dont read any further. The following is a complete rant of a feedback which I normally wouldn't post something so long, but I feel it very nicely sums up my and many others thoughts on last nights England fiasco:

So, I went to the pub with S and E to watch the match, and it was all going well, for about 200 seconds. And then Owen made the big mistake of scoring. Why oh why oh why oh why did Eriksson seem to think that was the big cue to start defending for 85 (or, as it happened, 105) minutes, as if England had suddenly turned into Italy? He goes to a LOT of football games, we see him on ITV every weekend watching Charlton v Bolton or whichever poxy Premiership makeweights (you'll notice I didn't mention Saints) are fielding the most English players that week, and sometimes even goes abroad to see Newcastle or Liverpoo (L left out deliberately) get knocked out of europe by some no-mark french team without a decent goalscorer to their wage bill. All these matches, and he doesn't seem able to grasp the simple fact that is this

Attacking wins matches.

It's that fucking simple. England are a team with goals coming from every department. Even without our two highest international scorers (Beckham and Owen) troubling the scorers, England went into this match as the highest scorers in the ENTIRE tournament. Yes, higher than Holland with Van Nistelrooy, level with Sweden with a fluke 5-0 win and Henrik Larsson, higher even than France with Theirry Va Va Bloody Voom Henry. And we go one nil up and he thinks we can defend for that long successfully. Has he been watching the same tournament as the rest of us? Team after team after team has failed to hold onto a lead. England vs France, Anyone vs the Czechs (who, by the way, are now my team to win this whole thing, fuck the French, they are French), Sweden vs Denmark (emphatically NOT a fix, just local rivals who can't bear the thought of the other team winning, and will move heaven and earth to prevent such a thing happening), even the mighty Italy couldn't hold their lead, and had to rely on a 93rd minute winner to ensure their hilarious dismissal from the group for daring to lose (yes, lose, again, spot the theme) a lead against Sweden.

So we defend for eons against a team whose recognised strength is their attacking. Hell, the first five minutes showed us how crap they were under a high ball lumped hopefully forward, and yet, even as the wonderkind Rooney limped off, victim to his own willingness to put everything into a match, Eriksson brought on Vassel. A short arse to combine with the short arse already playing up front. It pains me to say this, but Heskey was the better option here, as Eriksson obviously planned to defend forever, surely he wanted a player on the pitch who was used to winning high balls and holding them up, rather than the (admittedly) good luck charm in front of goal Darius Vassell, who's main attributes are pace at getting to balls in front of him and behind a defence, played by a midfield in control of the game, or a clever thinker in the box, who can find a way to get an attempt on target from any kind of ball played into the box by a midfield in even semi-control of the game. Both of which, at no stage in the game, were England capable of being. But they so were. Any time they bothered to put some passes together, playing the ball along the ground like it was meant to be played (and respect here to Brian Clough, who once said if the ball was meant to be in the ari, God would have put wings on it), then the Portuguese were panicked, unable to cope with the occasional slick interchange that occured, almost by accident from a midfield sleepwalking through their natural jobs.

Frankly, we got what we deserved. Yes, the referee made the wrong decision to disallow Campbells goal, seeing as the only foul that was occuring was Campbell himself on John Terry, but in a wider sense, the referee got it exactly right, as I don't want to see a team that is so negative, even after such a great start as it was handed, progress and do well in this tournament. I cheered France when they won the last Euro tourney, as they were playing the BEAUTIFUL game.

This is football, a game that always used to reward the brave, the team that dared to say, we don't care what you do, we ARE going to score more goals than you, and we don't care how long we have to wait until it happens, we will make it happen. That's the game I love, and that's the game I want to see at the highest level.

There you go Andy, try editing that down into an easily quotable snippet for your blog, and go on, give me my hat-trick of blog mentions. I dare you.

While I edit that, the French have been knocked out! Now that would normally be cause for celebration (yes, I know that sort of attitude annoys me from the Irish to the English but this is the French!) however since I drew them in the work sweep I am annoyed!

So, back to England. While I agree with the theme of that rant, I find it hard to believe that Eriksson actually intended that England defend for however long was left the moment they scored. If only England had pretended Portugal had scored on 3 mins we would have been OK. It was a shocking performance to defend so deeply and expect anything else other than to lose. As for Beckham, there is no excuse for missing the target, regardless if a ferret popped up under the ball just before he kicked it. He needs to do some serious work if he is to be good enough for a guaranteed start let alone the captaincy. Maybe Spain isn't working out for him. I cant see Real keeping him in the starting line up on this form. While J and I had a discussion about where Rooney should go as Everton weren't good enough for him, I have been wondering about Beckham. Perhaps Chelsea isn't a bad idea as the English fans will love him IF he has form to help them win the title.

Anyway this post is long enough to have bored all but the contributor and me so perhaps England in Euro2004 should be put to rest.

Totally gutted. Just don't know where to start on that shocking game which left England out of the competition 6-5 on penalties. England were truly awful for most of the game, but had a perfectly good winner ruled out by the ref for no good reason near the end of full time. I expect the locals here will milk it for a while... But hey, at least we qualified!

Project disaster almost under control at work. The supplier still most likely wont do what I want them to, but all is not lost...

Hooray for Holland!

Fairly uneventful day at work today, except the possibility arose near the end of the day that a fundamental design of the major project I've been working on for 2 months might be completely b*llocksed by something a supplier might or might not do.

Shame, just saw Italy knocked out of Euro2004. Watching England was hard work yesterday!Going 1 down, only to get 3-1 up, then let one in for 3-2 and finally winning 4-2! Some superb goals but you have to worry about the defense letting in 2 from set pieces.

Thanks to M's "Typo Alert Service" things are a bit tidier now :-)

On to other feedback:

Keane? Keane? Pah, Keane are so, like, two months ago. It's summer now, and that means pop music rules all, and that means deciding if we prefer the new Rachael Stevens single, or the new Girls Aloud single.

Err, thanks J! I admit the major flaw with the feedback service is I know who they are all from, but on the other hand that one would have been predictable anyway! Who else acts the smartarse while actually having heard of a 2 month old band... Although S bought the album 2 months ago I've only just been bothered to find the link, but the credit for being hip and so up to date does go to S.

I would highly recommend ..:: KEANE ::..

Bought the Philips TV (28PW8608) anyway as last time we bought a cheap one it lasted 5 years... So this one had better do a bit better! Picture quality is impressively better than the old one.

Went for a great walk up a nice hill overlooking Dublin bay and across to a lead mine with TNT then a well cooked BBQ. After home to watch Holland Hup, except they didn't quite Hup enough...

Got up early enough today to play in the service (and get to the practice on time) and got a lovely long call from B from SA! It was lovely to catch up and have a brief chat with C. I miss them all! Handed the phone over to S as I left (late) for the practice. B must have run up a nice bill!

Shame it rained for the picnic after but it was nice regardless. Back to G and Es for a fantastic dessert.

The little b@stards! Power City have added 200yoyos to the price of the 100Hz TV I was going to buy! I thought it was too good a price at €420 while Comet UK were selling at £450.

Back to Salzburg:

Saturday morning was an early enough start (8 for breakfast) so that we could make the most of the day. At 9:10 our morning tour guide skipped into the hotel singing "The hills are alive.." so we knew it was the right tour. Yes, we booked a Sound of Music tour!! It was superb! The rather camp but excellent guide, Peter, took us (well Ted drove while Peter talked, joked, sang..) round the city and pointed out various bits that were used in the film, via the building that was use as the back of the house and the lake the children fell in. Then up into the mountains and lakes for some fantastic scenery, to village with the church the wedding scene was filmed in.

All in all the tour was excellent! Well worth it. For the rest of the afternoon we walked round some stalls by the river and round the town. There was a superb quartet busking that consisted of 3 balalaika and an accordion player, playing Rossini and other overtures. They were brilliant - we bought the CD! Then back to the hotel for a short rest (we're getting old...) before going into town to an Italian restaurant.

Then on Sunday we got up a bit later and walked into town, via a big hill with a church on top to try and get a good view of the city and the castle. It p*ssed it down while so we huddled under a tree. (J and M had the wit to bring umbrellas which dripped on the rest of us). Stopped off for an Apfelstrudel and walked round town. After lunch we went round Motzart's house (which had a good museum) before going back to the hotel to get ready for the evening 4 course meal, followed by a concert in the castle. And here is the cockup. When we booked the meal and concert we completely forgot about the football, so I was sitting watching a string octet (actually there were 9 of them) with a horn solo while fighting VodafoneLive for score updates! The horn player was superb, playing a conventional French Horn a Motzart horn concerto, then an "Alphorn" for a Motzart Senior piece. The Alphorn is a long wooden thing that is played in the mountains at the goats.

Anyway that's more than enough written for one go. Back to supporting the French against Croatia - after England's excellent 3-0 win over the Swiss.

DISASTER!!! The TV has decided to break, rudely during a football tournament and when the projector is being repaired!

Speaking of football, some recent feedback says:

I'm very keen(E!) to hear about your experiences watching the England - France match in some godforsaken Austrian bar/hotel bar. I trust you'll be taking a shit load of white and red cross coloured items to prove to everyone in Austria just how much an England fan you are. Unless they all end up thinking you are a colour blind Swiss!

Err, no - we kind of stuffed up there, but more on that when I get round to finishing off writing about the Salzburg trip. However the most depressing thing about being an Englishman living in Ireland is International football. I dont have to travel to Austria to be surrounded people who dont seem to care about the highs (??) and lows (!!) of being an England fan. Actually they do seem to care about the lows! Mind you that feedback did come from a self proclaimed scot... I have turned up to work in an England polo shirt - I expect the lack of interest might be something to do with not qualifying ;-)

So for tomorrows game, do I watch on a 14" portable or risk going to the pub? Apparantly most of Dublin pubs are full of Englishman watching during England games so we'll see.

Getting up and going back to work after a brilliant weekend in Salzburg was hard today. Although the trip started off somewhat badly with us taking the afternoon off to get to Dublin airport in good time for our flight to Birmingham, we got there to find out Aer Lingus had rescheduled it to 2 hours later. Then the thing was delayed an hour later than that! Landed about 11pm which was far too late for a Nandos or to spend much time admiring Js new house (although it is very nice).

Next morning (after a good nights sleep on the sofa bed) the flight to Salzburg was on time, giving us the afternoon in the sun to wonder round the town. The hotel (which was very nice) was about 15 mins walk away from the old town.

By dinner the rain had started, but made little difference to our evening meal in a nice restaurant near by. Going to bed rather full meant not a great night sleep but we got up early enough to make the most of the next day... (more to follow when I'm not so nackered to write it

Woohooo! That's my working week over! Off to Salzburg for a long weekend via a very brief hop in Birmingham (about enough time to visit Nandos (I cant wait!) and see Js new house).

After M kindly pointed out some of the posts had rather strange headings in the "Previous posts" section I have attempted to edit. All the posts sent by email (done when I am too lazy to log into the web site) were labeled oddly as they were full of html, which seemed to confuse blogger. Now either blogger is dumb which would be a shame as email posting is a nice feature(*) or Lookout is filling my emails with more html than blogger knows what to do with.

A big thanks also to M for a subtle change to the feedback email address :-)

(*) unless I email from work where you'll get pages of annoying legal crap...

The walk to Greystones round Bray Head was just lovely. Fantastic weather and great views – until it gets a little overgrown near Greystones. We walked to A’s who fed us a lovely lunch and offered to drive us home which was accepted.

Back at work today which was as busy as ever. Only a 2.5 day working week and one down already!

Just got up and are about to head off to Greystones round Bray Head. All those in the UK who enjoyed a bank holiday while I was at work last week can have a lovely hot day in the office today

Hopefully the spelling on here is a bit better after a spell check by JWB. D'oh! Have only just spotted there is a spell checker here. Oh well, it just wouldn't be right if it was all correct.

Short lie in this morning before going into Dublin for a shop. Nothing too exciting was purchased but am considering a games console of some kind to "enhance" to turn into a multi media station, plus play the odd game.

One of our systems at work went a bit ill today so I hope it doesn't lead to an interrupted day of being on call. Although if it has to be busy, Sunday is a good day for it cash wise!

MIGWeb - It lives !!! (Possible 56k warning)

Michael, eat your heart out! You have a long way to go!!

Normal working day again today but found it hard to get out of bed. Getting stupidly busy at work with 3 fairly major projects to attempt to do at once. Luckily the functional spec deadline for one has been moved back, but typically that doesn't mean the next phase gets moved back but that we have less time to do the harder design part...

Have finally managed to convert an AVI with mpeg sound into a DVD with a working AC3 sound track! After @rsing around with the freebie tool for the sound conversion and getting a rather quiet output (DVD internal decoder worked so got sound on the TV, but the amp was having none of it) I turned my attention to commercial software. It took over 10 times longer to produce an identically sized file (not surprising given constant bit rate i guess) but it worked on the amp!

6am start today... Got a whole 30 mins to go until the Coffee shop opens!! Although I get to leave early, these early starts aren't anything like as good as a night intervension as I dont get an extra day off in lieu AND I work a full 7.5 hour day. Still, a fryup to look forward to shortly :-)