Paul's blog

Screenshot from my FaceBook pages just now... oddness!

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Pretty cool - 2nd hit on Google for Paul O'Brien. Quite surprising!

How on earth do I top Wikipedia for number one tho? :-)

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15:05 departure, didn't depart! DOH! Now showing 19:00 departure, which I would think is a 'finger in the air guess'.

This is how it went (imagine my parts as a conversation in my head)...

Me: Yay! On the plane, got a bulkhead row, loads of room. Sweet!
Me: Phew, quite warm on here, 15:05 now, I guess we'll be going soon.
Me: Yay, pushing back off the stand! Sweet!
Me: Wait, hang on, we're going back onto the stand, that's not right!
Captain: This is your captain, please don't be alarmed about the fire engines, it's just a precaution as we have fluid leaking from one of our engines
Me: WTF! A precaution, that doesn't sound good!
Captain: This is your captain again, the fluid appears to be hydraulic fluid, engineers are investigating, and we are aware the air con is broken and you're really hot. Sorry!
Me: Oh brilliant, way to inspire confidence!
Cabin Crew: distribute cups of water
Captain: Apologies for the delay ladies and gentlemen, we are currently determining whether to try and fix this plane or get another one
Me: Get another one, get another one!
Captain: OK ladies and gentlemen, it's a bit hot on here so we're offloading you into the terminal.
Me: Oh, brilliant, NOT!
Me: (getting off) - wow, a £5 refreshment voucher, how exciting.
Me: (to desk staff) - can I switch to the 17:30 Seattle flight?
Desk Staff: Only if you have no checked baggage
Me: Bugger!

So far, not great!

EDIT: Forgot to mention that they won't switch baggage to the other flight because, (quote BA guy), 'they'd rather spend the time fixing the plane'. I really hope it's not the baggage handlers fixing the plane!

EDIT 2: Announcement confirming they're fixing this plane, with a new ETD of 19:00.

EDIT 3: 18:15 - Boarding! Hurrah! See you in 9.5 hours ;-)

EDIT 4: Hello from Seattle... finally!

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My thought for the day:

It's a shame when people feel the need to come on your forum and generally act like muppets.

If I don't like a site, I don't go there. If I don't like a shop, I don't go there. If I don't like a restaurant, I don't go there.

If I WERE to go in a restaurant and basically shout about how I didn't like it, i'd be quickly ejected. Why is the internet world so different? Are these people the ones who complain in reality, or does the opposite apply - they are supressed complainers who only find the confidence in an online world?

Bah :-(

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You may have noticed, if you're a regular reader (?!) that the blog has been a bit quiet of late, well, today was my first post this year :D Let me explain why!

As with last year, I decided to make New Years Resolutions. Last years was to blog more, and it went *OK*, so I thought i'd really go to town with my resolutions this year! They were...

- To keep blogging
- To dedicate more time (i.e. evenings) to doing things such as gaming, reading or chilling out, rather than working
- To be more organised and productive at work

The first one, keeping blogging, is somewhat driven by and related to the second one. By freeing time this way, it gives me more time to blog... right? Well, a good idea, but somewhat scuppered by Vanessa buying me Guitar Hero III for XBox 360! Basically, every free bit of evening this month has been taken up by it, it's awesome! I have completed Easy and Medium, 5*'d all the songs on Easy and most on Medium, so it's not all bad... just that i've read no books, and done no blogging! I have technically kept my resolution tho, i've had much more leisure time! ;)

On to the third resolution! Anyone who's ever worked with me, or knows me, will know that I can be uber productive and do some great stuff, but I have a tendency to get distracted from the important stuff by the fun and less important stuff. That's changing this year... I'm going to focus on doing tasks that need to be done and prioritising! Progress so far? Very good! I'm employing an application called 'Things' on my Mac, which is brilliant at helping me achieve this. It has a really simple UI for the tasks, and I can chuck something in there by just hitting a simple key combo, typing the task and hitting enter. It then goes into the Things 'inbox', ready for me to prioritise later. Brilliant!

The reason you're probably getting this post is because V is busy playing GH3. I think my go is coming up tho... until next time...

;)

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It looks like i'm back on Google's Christmas card list, literally ;)

This dropped through the letter box on Saturday, a nice 2GB USB memory 'credit card' (with a nice leather wallet).

Thanks Google! :D

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Finally, today I get to play (thanks Matt)!

I think I'll have to video it in action and post it here...

:D

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Edit:

Maiden flight completed!

Very very cool, but also pretty tricky to fly, particularly when there's a bit of wind! Great fun though. Some minor damage from the first flight to the left skid, sustained by flying into the house... OOPS!

Nothing superglue won't fix though ;)

How do you explain the concept of the clocks 'falling back' to a 3 year old?

Sadly, you can't! Of course, Lucie also chose today to wake up earlier than usual anyway, plus we had a late night... net result... we're knackered!

:(

Welcome to winter ;)

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?!?!? 75 quid ?!?!?

Where the hell do they come up with this!

The crazy thing is, we actually went swimming! If it wasn't for the 1 hour disabled lesson that closed the pool at midday, we would have been fine! Grrr... :o

A reasonable fine is one thing, but 75 quid is completely outrageous, and bears no relation to any reasonable charge.

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Click to view full size:

Ever wondered what happens when you're growing your own courgettes, have been pruning them when they're a sensible size to keep them growing, then you go on holiday for nearly 3 weeks?

Check out Vanessa's 2.89kg courgette :D

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