Highly Strung

Well I’ve moved back into my flat after a 2 week hiatus. The homeboy is gone and the front door lock has been changed, but of course given my propensity to worry I do feel a little unsettled. Handily the irish pub downstairs is providing tunes in the form of their regular sunday night live music act, they’re all heart…

I had a lovely time watching riders whilst drinking beer yesterday, the amateur race was very exciting, although marred slightly by an accident in which a rider had to be removed by ambulance.

The amateur race was followed by the messenger race which proved to be a bit of fiasco as no one really seemed to know what was going on. we actually didn’t get to see the end on account of the arrival of torrential rain. After a spell under a kind strangers brolly we decided to make a run for it – to the nearest pub. Despite the proximity of the pub, we arrived, at a run, soaked to the skin.

Unfortunately once you’re that wet, it’s impossible to get warm again so we decided to cut our losses and head off home for a hot shower and a curry. It was a shame becuase it meant we missed both the folding bike race and the elite criterion. Still, the big one is yet to come, start of the tour de france, London 7th July.

I have just moved desks again. This time I did it myself without the benefit of a crate. I also have a bit of a hangover which had the effect of making me somewhat stupid. For example I found myself moving one thing at a time, which is a bit inefficient really.

I also found myself for the first, but probably not the last time, walking into the wrong row of desks just now. I can see this being horribly confusing.

Sometimes I think we might be better just moving to a hot desking system, then we’ll never have to do another office move.

The best comment I ever heard in regard to hotdesking was from my sister. After I told her that at my new office we didn’t have permanent desks and could choose a different one each day, she said ‘really? But what if you get up to go to the loo and when you get back someone is sitting in your place?’ and she was serious! Is it obvious she has never worked in an office?

1 – I am a great speller (except on Skype and Blogger where my typing gets in the way).

2 – I am very good at taking notes and producing minutes – this is shit because people genuinely like my minutes and try to get me to do them even when there is someone in the meeting who is there specifically for that purpose.

3 – I have a very long memory for social events. ie I remember who was there, what they were wearing, what was said – years later.

4 – I remember most of what is said by me and around me when drunk (quite an irritating habit all round really).

5 – I am one of the best sandwich makers I know. I actually think this is a great talent, however others sometimes fail to see the genius in it.

6 – I am good at knowing a little bit about a lot of subjects and therefore being able to blag on many many topics in the pub. Except that oen time i got talking to a man who was on the team which developed RealPlayer and he started talking highly technical and I had to pull out of the conversation before he realised the extent of my ignorance.

7 – Being sarcastic.

8 – Analysing other peoples behaviour – sorry I mean to say over-analysing.

9 – Being a cheap drunk.

10 – Growing my hair really fast (this applies to all the hair on my body, even the unwanted stuff)

This is actually the lead singer of the Rumble Strips tattoo. Proposed caption ‘Your name here…’

So the latest from the vicinity of my flat is that the home boy has been evicted and is apparently moving out today. I was however disconcerted to see his girlfriend letting herself in the communal front door on Sunday when I went home for clothes. My landlady has agreed the front door lock needs to be changed and hopefully she’;ll have that done asap. In the meantime I’ve been staying with the Boyf who seems to be coping well with the extra amount of clothing strewn on his bedroom floor. It’s also been a great excuse to go out and buy a few bits and pieces of clothing – not that I need an excuse for that…

In other news, Hack day was fun and the band who played for an hour at the end were very good (The Rumblestrips).

Hackday London 2007 at TechnoBabel

As witnessed in a pub last night; very petite woman with 3 bags. One was a rather voluminous handbag containing a full grown cat. She looked a bit sad and a lot mad.

According to a friend who works in property management, it is very unlikely that 4 police people would turn up for non payment of rent (usually its a bailiffs job), the homeboy must be wanted for something else…

In a dramatic turn of events the homeboy who lives below me was arrested this morning.

I had had a bout of insomnia compounded by the Homeboy arriving home around 1am and thereafter conducting loud conversations with his gffriend (I think perhaps the two of them are a wee bit deaf – what?? Whoooo?), because of this I was still in bed at 8am trying catch a few extra bits of sleep. I was awakened from a very exciting dream in which I was performing some daredevil manouveres on my bike by a buzzing from my entry phone. Dragging on a dressing gown I picked up the receiver:

‘does Homeboy live here?’ a disembodied voice enquired.

‘no’ I replied, ‘he lives at Flat C’

‘is he home?’ the voice continued

‘no – you need to ring his bell’ I rather testily replied.

‘well can you buzz us in, it’s the police and we need to speak with him’

Thinking – safety first, I said ‘well how do I know you are the police if I don’t come down there?’

‘well can you come down?, we have a warrant for his arrest’

‘ok then’

Opening the front door I see at least 4 plain clothes policepeople wearing police branded vests, I lead them up the stairs and then retire quickly to my flat to sit on my stairs and listen to proceedings. Turns out he hasn’t paid his rent and is required to go with the police to court, they tell him he will be released afterward. For me this is not great news, I was hoping he would be taken away forever – I can only hope he is evicted from the flat quite quickly. Paticularly as he will have figured it is me who let them in. Still, they wouldn’t have even been there if he had paid his rent, but I’m not sure he’ll see it like that. Certainly his gobby girlfriend is most likely to have a go at me. It’s a crap state of affairs to feel intimidated by your neighbours in such a way. I will be speaking to my landlady to ask her to keep me informed of whether he is moving out or not, but in the meantime I just need a good nights sleep. The Boyf’s home will be my sanctuary for a few days while I gather my thoughts on the situation.

In other news, work is the original source of my insomnia, but hopefully that will pass.