xendistar.co.uk

Just spent the evening trying to organise insurance to cover the mountain bikes. We asked our current household insurer if they would be covered under the existing house insurance and they wanted to put the insurance premium up by a silly amount. So asked of a mountain bike forum and got a couple of suggestions and did a bit of googling and ended up with 6 companies to look at. So how did we get on? Well two sites would not load properly and just seemed to send us around in circles, 2 sites were using the same insurance company (and same online form) yet gave two different premiums costs, 3 of the sites would only insure the two bikes on one policy if they were both owned by you. We found one site that offered us everything we wanted, would allow us to insure 2 bikes with two different owner on the same policy so we said yes. Unfortunately the there system said no by crashing and offered us a telephone number to call!! don’t you just love technology.

Talking technology the IT world is waiting with baited breath for October the 22nd, the day Microsoft release Windows 7, their replacement for the flop called Vista. The fact that every-man and his dog has been using the beta and the RC (release candidates) version for the past 6 months has nothing to do with it. Microsoft learnt that by releasing a beta and RC version they could gain a wealth of information about bugs and other problems so that when they released the final version the release would be near faultless, well that is yet to be seen but can it really be as bad as the reception Vista got. My job is IT and I can say I am the only person in the company with a Vista powered PC because Vista is crap. I can’t risk palming it off to somebody else because if they have a problem with it I have to support it remotely which is not my idea of fun.

I have to be honest and say that I am not a great fan of Microsoft, I find there is little real innovation in their products, they build in subtle changes to their software within each version which pushes it up the power required to run ladder, thus forcing users to purchase ever more powerful PC to run ever more bloated software. It is their marketing department that deserve all the praise, they could sell sand to an Arab and the poor guy would think he got a good deal.

My main PC at home is a Linux based PC, the PC is about 6 years old, basic mini ATX type, it is still reasonably fast and run 24\7, at the end of the day it just works and I can’t ask for anymore than that.

That my weight, it was weight in night at Slimming World tonight. I have been a member of Slimming world for over  15 months and I have lost 35.5lbs  to date. But the way my weight goes up and down I probably have lost 70lbs but put 35lbs back on……….. Last week I put 3.5lbs on this week I lost 3.5lbs and it is not the first time this has happened (not the amount but the fact I put “X” on one week and lose “X” the next week). I will put my hand up and say that I am no angel when it comes to eating the right foods but sometimes what I eat and my weight loss\gain just do not seem to go together.

But I can’t complain, I am probably the lightest I have been for a couple of years, I am currently sat on the border of a new number (going from 19 stone into 18 stone, yes I am that heavy). My knee’s no longer ache like they used to, I guess that if I had a blood test I will have moved away from the path of becoming diabetic which is what got me start losing weight.

Long term, I am not sure what weight I want to get down to, I know those in the medical profession will say I should get to my ideal weight which if I remember correctly is about 10.5st but when I was that weight I looked to skinny and was happier around the 11st to 11.5st but either way I have a long way to go.

I am not going to bore you with how my diet works, it seems to work for me, if you want to know more about it then check out  Slimming Worlds web site for more information.

At least this time it is not due to the saddle, no this time it is due to the fact that I fell backwards into the undergrowth, let me explain. I was trying to get up this steep hill, realising I was not going to make it I stopped half way up the hill and put my foot down. Then a through my leg over the bike to get off but over balanced, fell backwards into the undergrowth. It not the small of my back and it is not my butt, there is a small area in between the two. A dull numb pain.

Yesterdays cycling eventually got going a couple of hours after we arrived, got the the forest early, set off and quickly realised that all was not well with the bikes rear end. A quick inspection revealed that the rear tyre was soft. Back at the car and we realised the pump was at home, so I left the wife stood in the car park with the bikes and bits while I drove home (its only a 12 minute drive)………………………behind the only two driver around on a Saturday that thought 30mph  on roads with a higher speed limit was a good idea. Sitting behind one on the way home was bad enough but then meeting another on the return journey, 35 minutes the round trip took.

Got back to the car park and guess what, I had the wrong type of pump, well I had a pump and had not had a need to use it till now. So we loaded the bikes back on to the car and headed to a local cycle shop. Now as strange as this may seem we had intended to check out this cycle store later in the day as they do second hand bikes and we were looking for one for our son and I had intended to purchase a puncture repair kit and small pump that I could carry in a rucksack (the pump we have is a foot pump), the irony of it.

Once we had duly purchased a pump and repair kit we headed back to the car (they had no suitable bikes for our son). As we drove through the back street we came across a small cycle shop that we never knew existed and there sat on display in the front of the shop was a white BMX. So after a closer inspection we agreed to purchase said BMX, no cards they only take cash. So we then went in search of a cash machine, once we had acquired the funds it was back to the shop and we purchased the BMX bike.

Now where are we going to put it, the bike rack did not have the room, so we had to put the bike inside the car on the back seat, not the easiest of fits but we managed it. We then set off again to the forest car park. Two hours after first arriving at the car park we were off on our way again. We had a very enjoyable ride, managed the full route of the cycle path and included taking some detours into the undergrowth, found a nice little hill, quite steep. Had fun encouraging the wife to go down it including when she fell into the undergrowth but that is another story

It has been a hectic week, Tuesday was supposed to be an easy day to catch up on all the bits that I needed to do for the show, but no somebody thought it would be good to break part of the system at work so 6.5 hours and  280 miles later I sat down to finishing answering the e-mails I started reading at 8:45am.

Wednesday was hectic as I had the same 280 mile round trip to make as yesterday for a PC install and a server to prep ready for install, in fact I installed the server to the point of firing it up and being able to access remotely, so this was a bonus. I had expected to take longer on the PC (Installing some unknown software) but fortunately it was straightforward. I had all the other minor jobs they save up for my arrival  despite my requests to e-mail their problems as much of it I can resolve remotely. Then I enjoyed the 140 mile drive home in torrential rain.

Thursday was the day I was going to see if my theory worked, I had been given a problem concerning two TV’s and one DVD player. After a bit of research I had an idea how to set it up and obtained all the bits to do so. Now was the time to see if it worked. Fortunately it did which was good as theTV’s and DVD were being shipped to the show early on Friday morning so little time to resolve the problem had it not worked.

Friday was plain old catch up day, never  got half the things done I wanted done, I had the normal amount of calls to resolve and e-mails to write because they never listen when I told them the first time, oh the daily grind is fun.

I had intended to try and get out on my bike one evening this week, well the only evening was Thursday (all the other rained), but I was home late so that went out the window. Going out tomorrow morning to the same place as last week,  intend to have a good old ride and then see what happens.

The cooker saga continues, apparently the company that does the exchange has phoned us no doubt to arrange another exchange but we have not had the time to call them back. But it is certainly nice being able to walk across the kitchen without having to negotiate the cooker sat in the middle of the floor and we can cook things in the oven now (that is what died on the old one).

Sorted out a minor problem on this site, the picture slide show was not working in Opera web browsers. A quick e-mail to the plug-in developer and I had a choice of 4 to choose from. Thank fully I found one I liked and worked in Opera

Still have one problem to the site to resolve, comments is broken, I am looking into it and will get it working as soon as I can. If you have any suggestions then use the contact form to let me know.

“….just prey the replacement one is not damaged”

Well the new cooker duly arrived this morning, the fitters set to work removing the old cooker and wiring up the new one, switched it on and it worked…………………..well sort off. After much faffing around and several phone calls it was decide that half the touch sensitive button did not work. After a few more calls I was offered the choice of either taking the newly delivered cooker back, but leaving the damaged cooker and wiring up the old one again (they can’t take both back as they have to exchange an appliance) or fitting the faulty cooker and then waiting for an engineer to come out and fix it 2 to 4 weeks if parts are required and taking the damaged cooker back. So I opted for option three which they did not offer, take the faulty one back and fit the damaged one while I wait for a replacement for the damaged one. After more phone calls, it was confirmed that option three was acceptable to the manufacturer.

I am not impressed to say the least but once they have your money it you that has to do all the running and get things sorted out. It will be me that will be phoning them up and finding out when the replacement is due like last time, it will be me taking time off work to be at home waiting for it to arrive. But hey its a typical Monday

The day only got worse, I had countless phone calls this morning people complaining this does not work or wanting something set-up, the list just went on. Simple jobs turned into hard jobs, it was just a typical Monday.

Tonight was weight in night, and I was less than impressed, OK I am the first to put my hand up and say I ate all the wrong things last week and had a drink over the weekend, but the weight gain does not compare to what I ate. Add that to the 12 odd miles I cycled, ok it was no tour of Britain but it a fair few miles for somebody who has not ridden any sense for many years or used to such exercise.  But hey its a typical Monday.

Roll on Tuesday………………………