Vroom!

I bought a new car today!

Well, I say new. It's not, of course, but it's new to us. After several months of trying to make public transport work with a baby we decided we'd had enough. So I'm now the owner of a fairly beat-up silver Rover 25. It'll do me for a year until I get my test passed and my insurance down, although the latter wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. That's not to say that I actively enjoyed the amount of money I shelled out today and I've hardly begun.

The tax is due up in November, it needs body work and a full valet. It has, at least, just been serviced and had its MOT done. Picking it up tomorrow.

I had been planning on buying a Honda Jazz, but they're still too dear and with the new model coming out in January the current model prices will fall then. Or if I'm making more money then I might buy something a bit bigger come renewal time. I did go and look at one at Arnold Clark's, but the whole process of dealing with them just put me off. Even having a connection to the salesman didn't make it a much more pleasant experience. I just don't like some of the thingsd they do. Like refusing to accept a personal cheque for the deposit despite it being on their list of accepted payment methods. Like having to give them a deposit to test drive a car in the first place. Mostly like their refusal to refund my deposit to my card but I have to wait for a cheque from them!

Bastards!

Passengers to be fingerprinted at British airports - Computeractive

Passengers to be fingerprinted at British airports - Computeractive

This really smacks of another step towards a police state in the name of fighting terrorism.

Every passenger photographed and fingerprinted on every journey? It really is nothing short of tracking teh movements of the populace. How long is it likely to be before we're bening asked to justify our reasons for making the trip? Then it's travel permits.

Sound paranoid? It does to me, too, but then I never thought I'd be getting fingerprinted every time I wanted to fly to London. Read that bit about the Home Office saying 'it would not be responsible in “satisfying the Information Commissioner that the right data protection is in place". and that it would "use its powers...to push the proposals through." In other words, sod what we want this sub-agency of the Home Office can do what it likes to our freedoms with impunity.

Animated avatar

USC Lab Creates 3-D Holographic Displays, Brings TIE Fighters to Life | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

This is phenomenally cool. Make sure you look at the youtube video at the end.

USC Lab Creates 3-D Holographic Displays, Brings TIE Fighters to Life | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

How to Waste Money

Don't you just love how expensive political correctness is?

£100,000 police hunt for 'terror' suit to fit over turban

A police project that involved spending £100,000 helping a Sikh officer find a chemical and biological attack suit to fit over his turban and beard has been described as "ridiculous". The junior officer, who has not been named, encountered problems trying to join West Midlands Police's counter-terrorist operation support unit because he could not fit protective gear over his religious headwear and beard. Police chiefs decided to let him spend 18 months trying to find new respirators and helmets suitable for Sikhs. But after failing to come up with an alternative he was restored to his regular role – only to go on long-term sick leave for stress. The cost of the 18-month project has been estimated at £100,000 and has been criticised for being a "ridiculous" waste of taxpayers' cash.

The Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/2136162/andpound100%2C000-police-hunt-for-%27terror%27-suit-to-fit-over-turban.html

Catching Up

So I'm in the new job, which is ticking over nicely and is about as much of a skive as I expectred it to be. The folk are pretty nice the customers are fine and the troubles from the neds arent' too terrible so far. That last includes being water-bombed towards the close of business the other day. Too stupid to realise that we were watching him & that he'd been logged into a PC immediately beforehand so bye-bye internet access. Chump!

I'm heartened to see how many people actually use the place, although a very high proportion are only there for internut access. Two stories, both sad in their own way.

One wee boy came in, sat quietly readin in the corner until closing and then asked us to keep the book behind the counter for him. "Why not take it home?" I asked. "Because my dad slags me off for being a geek if I take books home." says he.
Community police officers came in. Not to see us, so one of them could use the internet to book his holidays. Yep, whilst on duty. During the conversation at the counter about why he needed a membership to get on the computers he announces -proudly- that he "...tried to read a book once about fifteen years ago. Got about three words into it and that was enough." Makes you weep for the state of our polis, doesn't it?
Oh yeah! Before I forget. Typically, I've had more auditions & work since I semi-retired that I have in the past year.
Aeryn's doing really well. Had her first innoculations - a month late - and her six-week checkup - six weeks late. The joys of centralised organisation!
She's trying to sit up, is grasping & reaching for things and beginning to 'talk' and laugh. She has a smile that could melt the heart of a Thatcherite, too. Whatever the day's been like being greeted with the radiance of her biggest, cheesiest grins makes the world just disappear.

Finally!

I started at the library last week.

Only three months after being offered the post.

Yes, it is about as big a skive as I imagined it would be, and I've laready threatened a ned with being booted out.

Quick Update (again)

It's amazing how little time I'm spending online these days. True, it's not all Aeryn's fault but it is mostly due to just not getting time to sit & do stuff. You should see how much TV is on the HDD recorder. Something tells me we're never going to get through the backlog of DVDs, either.

So what's new? Frankly, nothing. Still waiting to start at the library, although it has been confirmed that I'll be at Elderpark. If I ever start.

Aeryn broke the 12lb mark this week and has figured out how to roll over. She doesn't do it much so far, but can do it when she wants. She's still both colicky & a bit congested, but taking her in to a steamy bathroom is helping with that. The doc wants us to give her amoxycillin for it, but I think we'll give her a few days longer with the steam. Last thing I want is to discover she has an allergy now. At least I know what to look for having spent the past week doing the medical roleplay concerning it. Our doc failed the test as he didn't mention any potential side-effects of the drug. Since teeny-bash already has a bit of a rash just now we'd have a hard time telling what was causing it if she did have trouble with the drug.

New pics should be on Flickr soon.

We bought Aeryn her first two books the other day. This one, Goodnight Panda is her favourite so far. The idea of a glove puppet & book combined just worked so well we thought we had to have it. The fact that it's predominantly black & white (which is best for Aeryn's eyesight right now) made it even better. She seems to be fondest of the zebra and the cat as they're the ones she grabs.

Or does that mean she hates them & wants to rip their heads off?

She also had her first visit to the doctor on Saturday.

After a couple of colicy days she suddenly developed large, very hard lumps in her breasts. She actually looked like she had hit puberty already. Putting the two things together made us really worried, so we called NHS24 who sent us off to the emergency surgery.

All was well, though, as it's apparently quite common and hormone-related.

We reserve the right to be worried parents, though.

She's been unsettled again tonight & won't stop feeding so there may well be a rough night ahead...

Quick update

I've just not had a moment to sit down & post properly of late. I've been going days without hitting the power-switch on the PC. Then when I do my inbox is full of clutter I have to wade through to get to the good stuff. Anyway, a quick note to say all's well. Aeryn's not as perfect as before, but I reckon that's down to us still trying to figure out her needs and get the right routine for her. Mind you, by anyone's standards one feed per night is pretty good.

I've set up a Picassa web album alongside the Flickr one, because Picassa works better off the desktop.

Still waiting for the library to start, but got a few days on River City in the meantime. Which I'm off to now...