Here I am again, 1:30am and back at work... Only this time they're doing less than a third of the work done the other night so I am just about finished already.

S made a suggestion that given the possible wider audience of this blog than there used to be, perhaps I should consider the use of language. While she has a point it also goes back to the thought of tailoring what I write based on who might read it. I guess you have to weigh up not actually wanting to offend while still being able to say what you want. I found out something today at work that I am hard pushed to describe in words that would pass the S&N test. I don't think I can actually describe my feelings without using "c" words (that don't end in rap) or words that rhyme with duck. Turns out a whole bunch of people were awarded a cash prize at work for working on a particular high profile project. One that I worked on - worked very hard at too. Strangely while the PM put my name down on the list, it had been removed by the time the awards were given but some how my managers name was there, even though he did nothing more than attend a few meetings and panic when he thought a supplier had screwed up. While I don't doubt that he wasn't responsible for my name disappearing, I have heard from several people (who have commiserated me on what must be a rather annoying moment for me) that he nominated himself for this award. Seems rather odd that a manager can do that, for something he contributed little or nothing to... So work hard, get screwed. My motivation this week just gets better and better! Remind me again why I'm here now?!

It's 10 to 2 in the morning and I'm at work. Fun! Intervention is going well enough, it started early and there's two of us here which makes it more entertaining. But I should keep quiet as there's always the potential for Mr F*ckup! They've already lost one tester and another is ill which is clever going an hour into proceedings...

L sent me 5 CDs today of The Frames, which I was very impressed to get! I was feeling sorry for myself at the time having just twigged that it's a bank holiday this weekend and S isn't going to be here, so I am stuck in Dublin on my own with sod all to do... There are times I really miss having friends near by like in Birmingham! But with a Brookmyre to finish and an HP book to start (yeah, right, like I'll finish that in a day!) and now some new CDs to listen to I guess I'll be ok. Yeah yeah, the lawn needs mowing and the car needs washing, but stuff that on a day off! I'll try and get some serious video editing done for the holiday club team too.

Finished our testing but have to wait for those idiots that got lost to run theirs which is a royal pain. Just found out that the buggers have to drive to Limerick before they can start testing! I'll be asleep before they get there. Remember Baldrick, we're not at home to Mr F*ckup!

Disaster!! The TV is broken! (well, NTL is dead) S and I are at a loss of what to do!!

First day back at work after the week off for the holiday club, which was a real downer. Although having had my rant about pay rises, I was given one today!! It wasn't "the hills are alive" massive, but was slightly bigger than it could have been. Given my employer openly admits to not being a high payer I guess I cant complain.

NTL still dead, so no BB tonight. Will have to make do with bed and Brookmyre! Speaking of books, S managed to read the whole of HP6 today!

It's been a while since posts, partly because I was off this last week helping out at the first holiday club of the summer for S. I had an amazing time! The club was just in the mornings, from 9:45 until 1pm, for 4 to 12 year olds. It was in a tiny village in the middle of no where in Co. Sligo (two parishes combined to hold the club together). The afternoons were spent with the team working hard together to prepare for the following day. The week was nackering but brilliant! The team (excuse the naming confusion, but if you know them you can work out who is who, if you dont then I doubt it makes much difference!) was made up of S, L and myself from Dublin, J, L and A from NI and J from various places in Ireland. We got there Sat afternoon, to loads of flys and dogs and a hall full of chairs etc but worked hard to make the hall nice with all the banners etc. I would have naturally chosen to work with the 10-12 year olds but J wanted to do that and we couldn't have both guys in the same group, so I ended up doing the 7-9s with J (different J...) who I think I worked very well with. I enjoyed the group we had and while not being used to working with this age group got on well with them. In all we had around 30 kids which was about right for the size of the hall. Very evenly spread between the 3 age groupings we had (the other being the 4-6s which is a group I could not have done without the use of a large bat).

It would be far to big a post to go through the whole weeks program, but it was a very rewarding week to work with the kids. What I got out of it even more than that was how well we got on as a team and the fun we had. I hope we manage to keep in touch.

We came back on Fri afternoon/evening, got up early on Sat to take the material to the next club (which neither me or S are helping with) then off down to Wexford for the Irish bash for R&M. The party was great fun and went very well even though the weather could have been better. Today we went to Redcross church in the morning (where T was speaking) then on to Hunters for lunch - which was lovely! S and I were treated to lunch by R,M,D&T for our anniversary tomorrow, which was a lovely surprise. Just as we were finishing, Maeve Binchy sat down for lunch at a table near by... Ireland is a small place!

So now I have to go back to the rich Corporate world of work and I have to say I am well unmotivated for it. Having spent a week having fun and hopefully making a difference, going back to work for a company who have made record profits yet wont give us a pay rise this year is not appealing. A place where they happily pay a grand a day to someone to do the same job as you but not give you a pay rise because "that money comes out of a different pot" - well I dont give a sh*te which pot it comes from! A place that spends millions on nothing then cans it and thinks nothing of the loss... I should probably stop there!! S has gone to bed not feeling well so I should go check on her.

Had a busy week this last week, with 2 over night interventions (well, one of them started at 5am which meant I was still there when everyone else turned up, decided I may as well have some coffee and spend the rest of the day awake) and several evenings busy I was nackered by the end of it. So much so I missed an 8am meeting I had on Saturday. Oops!

Spent the rest of Friday building a new PC. After doing video editing for S and this summers holiday clubs I decided my old CMG PIII wasn't quite up to it any more. After much research (mainly by A on my behalf) I decided to build an AMD64 based machine. Which has meant installing the 64bit version of Windows. The build started badly as the new HD wouldn't plug into the old power supplies plugs (how was I meant to know they change the sodding power supply plug format? Even though you can buy adaptors from one to the other so the change clearly doesnt add anything you cant get out of the old plug) and nothing happened when I turned it up. A trip to a local supplier for a new PSU sorted both of those problems out. The XP64 installation went smooth enough and the machine has been running stable since. It's a bit of an arse to have to find 64bit drivers for everything, but everything other than the printer works. Have done some video editing but AVI to DVD work will require a bit of thought as I attempt to mix 32bit and 64bit programs and codecs...

Had a nice and quiet weekend, which was much needed after recent busy ones. S and I had a nice mooch around Dun Laoghaire on Sat and managed to clear up the Cinema (ours) today. Went to the Cinema (IMC in Dun Loaghaire) on Sat to see Batman Begins. Really enjoyed it! I've not seen the other Batman films (about 30 mins of the first one) and never got the whole Batman thing as a kid, but this film was very good.

Have just been to see the African Nations children's Choir in Crinken - they were fantastic! Having spent the morning singing to Gordon Brown and the weekend on Live8 to then come and sing in Shankill must have been a bit of a come down!! They were amazing anyway so if you get the chance to see them I'd recommend it. We have 3 of them staying here plus one of their adult "leaders". They are lovely kids! S asked them if they knew what a trombone was and they were very amused when I showed them. These guys are all from SA (for B's interest, somewhere Cape Town way I think) and all have lost at least one if not both parents to AIDS.

I discovered by accident yesterday a side effect of S putting a link to her blog on the bottom of all her emails... There is a link on her blog to mine! While some people are clearly too thick to work out what her blog is all about let alone follow the link to mine, some have managed! So welcome to L in particular - if she continues to read mine that is!

Had a chicken Vindaloo yesterday and while it was lovely at the time I am slightly regretting it now... It was close to the perfect curry as it was a bit of a struggle to manage but I could eat the whole thing without too many tears! If you eat a curry without noticing the hotness then it's no good. If you cant finish it as even the smallest mouthful makes you cry then it's also not great. However a curry should make you work hard to eat it whilst actually being able to finish the thing.