Chance for a breather at last.

 

I spent most of last week exploring the many castles that Northumberland has to offer as we took a last minute decision to head to a little farm up there and spend a few days away. Aside from that I've been very busy at work!

 

So my first day to myself in a while was yesterday and I decided to go suit shopping. That is a very rare indeed. I am one of those people that will happily wear the same clothes until the literally wear out! However, my good friend and colleague that I went to work with a few months back always looks so damned smart that I feel the need to catch up!

 

I'm currently trawling the internet for car insurance, since my insurer has just sent me my renewal quote. An extravagant £592!!! Why do companies all feel that their existing customers should pay through the nose so they can offer new customers good deals. I take a new deal every year because of this phenomenon (except last year when I forgot to do it). That really hacks me off because I am the type of loyal person that would simply prefer to stay put. Anyway, I've found £270 and trying to beat that is proving impossible. I think I will write a letter of complaint to my insurer actually, since I have got a 'new customer' quote from them and it is £220 cheaper than their renewal (I have taken a new deal with the same company before now to get around it by the way). I just think it is ridiculous.

 

I do this whilst listening to the soundtrack of the film 'The Last Samurai'. Look for 'The Last Samurai OST' on YouTube and you will probably find all eleven tracks. It is by Hans Zimmer, the amazing movie soundtrack composer.

 

Moment of the week, giving a patient a flu jab for the first time. I'm being taken well outside my comfort zone with some of the new services that we are offering, but it is really enjoyable to use new skills.

 

Time to update my Funtrivia progress. Here is the list of badges I had hoped for by the end of september:

 

Team Player

Gold Madness

Obscure Knowledge

You Graduated!

Early Bird

Hourly Mix Winner

Daily Crown

Achievement: New Question

World Champ: World Game

Team Tycoon

 

So that was July 21st.

 

Actual list of badges won since then:

 

Obscure Knowledge (Jul 23rd)

World Champ - World Game (Jul 26th)

You Graduated! (Jul 26th)

Daily Crown (Jul 28th)

Point God (Aug 22nd)

Team Tycoon (Sep 9th)

Chatterbox (Sep 11th)

 

So I won five of the ten badges that I set out to get and along the way somehow picked up two different ones (I think trying to get chatterbox on purpose is quite lame, although you do see those posters frantically adding to every thread they can get their hands on and then a short while later they never bother to post anything anywhere again because they have the badge).

 

I also set myself a target of two more expert category wins, I have won none!

 

On the quiz writing front I got a couple more online at the end of August. One about Star Trek and one about Huddersfield Town Football Club. I plan to write a few more in the coming weeks, another Babylon 5 one, a Highlander TV series one, a Pharmacy one and maybe a Lionel Richie one.

 

New targets - for completion by 30/11/2009

 

- two more quizzes online

- two more expert category wins

- level 8 of global challenge

- Badges,

          Team Player

          Gold Madness

          Hourly Mix Winner

          Achievement: New Question

         

Happy Trivia!

It is a year ago today that my wife and I were travelling across the pond to the Big Apple to begin our honeymoon. The holiday took us across seventeen states and we took in breathtaking sights. We arrived to somber remembrance of lives lost. Then we got caught up in election fever! We saw the awesome natural beauty that the states have to offer and we saw man-made wonders too!

 

I'd like to thank those who gave me ideas for First Wedding Anniversary presents, particularly good was GG's - I didn't have chance to order it in time but instead we have created a 'make your own headline' paper together and are going to order it. We had a lovely time in the Lake District and have decided that we must go back for more than just a weekend.

 

 

On a personal note, I've been asked by a colleague to give a talk to some medical students later in the year! It's a long time since I did anything like that, scary stuff. Not sure whether to hand it over to someone else, but I do actually like doing things like this if I'm prepared well enough. Give it some more thought.

 

On a funtrivia note, I have recently added two more quizzes and have ideas for three more rattling around in my mind (don't worry, I've sketched them out on paper so I don't forget). Aside from my horrific use of the english language, I don't think I've done such a bad job on these first few quizzes! As I say, the editors should take a lot of credit for tweaking my grammar etc.

 

Plans for the next few weeks... couple of training events, couple of Huddersfield Town matches, usual work, trip to casino with some of the staff at work! They like me for some reason. Then I've booked the first week of october as holiday so we can pick up some last minute deal in a week or two!

So, it's half past midnight here and I wanted to go to bed. I thought I'd better play the global challenge set at about five minutes to midnight and then decided to play Team Heroes, then Fill Me In and so it goes on. But now I've played the Hourly mixed game and I'm top, so now I have to wait until 12.45 to see if I hang on to it. That's why I'm here!

 

Well it's a little while since I droned on about my existence anyway. I went to Newcastle on Wednesday, finished work early at 2 so that I could get a jump on the traffic so I could be there plenty of time before the kick off time for the League Cup encounter between Newcastle United and my adored Huddersfield Town. Huddersfield lost 4-3 after leading 3-1, but it was an incredible game. Glad I went. Stayed in a Premier Travel Inn, which I was very impressed with, and then headed onto my friend that lives near Middlesbrough. Being a teacher, he was free to indulge in some pitch n putt and also some pool.

 

When I returned yesterday, my wife had bought a games console, the Wii! So we've been playing it relentlessly ever since. It is great fun, very addictive, so I doubt you will see much of me here for the next few weeks.

 

It is my first wedding anniversary next weekend, I've booked a hotel in the lake district so fingers crossed for some nice weather for walks and such. Hard to believe it's been a year, nearly seven years together in total. Racking my brains for lots of joke 'paper' presents to buy. :)

 

I've nearly wasted enough time to get to 12.45 now, so I'll say night night funtrivia-ers!

Yours Truly has completed his First Aid at Work course today, whoop! A four day course with St. John ambulance, very good actually.

 

One thing that I really enjoyed about the four days was being around the nine other people taking the course. They were from varying backgrounds and differing areas of employment. It was nice to be interacting with others that had no connection with healthcare, pharmacy and so on. Very refreshing. I need to take up a serious hobby where I interact with others! Outside of my professional sphere! I think I'm turning into a pharmacy-robot.

 

Finally, we've bought a widescreen TV! My better half has been nagging (sorry, politely reminding) me that my TV that we were using is the same one that I have had since I was a teenager at home with my parents. I would respond with something like, 'there's nowt' wrong wi'thit!' or 'still works, it's just like new'. Perhaps subconsciously I feel like we're not just discussing the TV!

 

Anyway, I have given in... and agreed that my wife buy a brand new TV with her own money! haha! Anyway, she was right because it looks superb in the corner of our room on its brand new stand. Excellent! We also picked up a second hand sideboard for the dining room and a second hand table and chairs. So now we have two lots of tables and chairs in the conservatory and a hulking great sideboard sat in the dining room... they were cheap though!

 

Our house gradually approaches the perfection that we will expect to achieve in about... 2015 or something. Nearly time for 'New Tricks', one of my favourite TV shows (watched on the brand new telly), so I'll just leave you with the little gem that I didn't manage to get around to sending a birthday card to my dad last week (damn). I will have to go up there this weekend I think :)

High time for another update on my Funtrivia playing exploits.

 

Lets see, I won the Smartest of the Smart badge on sunday! I was stoked about that one I can tell you. I rarely play Who's the Smartest  because I'm embarrassed by my performances (regularly 3-4 out of 10). I noticed Sci/Tech was on and thought, why not give my favourite a bash, 24 seconds later I have an unassailable 10/10 and I checked every five minutes to see how close we were getting to 200 players (necessary to win said badge).

 

How about all the badgelets! It's my 4th attempt today to win a round of knockout so that I can have the 1st level completed and win the badge, but I scored 1500 so I'm not holding my breath. I like all the quiz playing ones, I've finished a couple, very slowly doing the others.

 

I think I'm about five or six days away from 5000 Geo points, same with the Daily points. I think those two games are excellent now, I wish everyone hadn't gone up in arms when Terry suggested making alterations to the Team game, it is nowhere near as good as the other daily games now and that's a shame. Trust in Terry! He nearly always gets it right! Oh well, looks like that game is doomed to stay as is for some time now. It is of course the infamous game amongst my team, because it is the subject that created the rift between our original team members.

 

I think I am about two ot three months away from a serious push for the Fill Me In monthly. I still hover around the 40th position mark, as I have done for three months, I think as some win the badge they will be less inclined to play what is something of an unpopular game amongst the masses. I still cannot bring myself to try to win Who Am I though, I find it quite a dull game not to mention difficult.

 

So Global Challenge 10 is about to end, kudos to all the new immortals. I'm wondering whether to have a go next time. Can I do it? My problem is that I refuse to log on at times when I certainly would not be using my computer. I usually have it on once a day on a typical working day. Going for the challenge, in reality, means logging in before work! Hmm. I'll think about it.

 

Something that happened over the last week is my sudden quiz writing surge! I finally finished my first one, a quiz about Babylon 5 episode 'The Long Night'. Then I rushed quickly into another, although I have not finished that yet, having some difficulties getting some of the questions right for the editors liking. I'm not complaining about that of course, I agree with the editor. I just didn't see certain things to start with, but then it is my first quiz (I'm not counting the actual first quiz because I spent two months writing it and it sailed through the editors, no probs). I think most players must have gone through a learning curve with regards to their first quizzes? It's all very well reading all the guidance and playing all the tune ups, but there were still things that I didn't think of.

I have a couple more quiz ideas in minds, perhaps I should write them down before I forget! I also plan to continue the episodic quizzes on Babylon 5. I have started off where player, kbrugman, left off - four episodes into season four. I enjoyed all of his episodic quizzes, but he hadn't made one for about two years.

 

Since this is 'part 1', I shall return to this at a later date. I think I shall try something quantitative here. These are the badges that I hope to have won by... ooh, end of september:

Team Player

Gold Madness

Obscure Knowledge

You Graduated!

Early Bird

Hourly Mix Winner

Daily Crown

Achievement: New Question

World Champ: World Game

Team Tycoon

 

and say, two more category wins in the Expert game.

Hi folks!

 

Long time since my last, but in my defence I had a holiday and also work has been crazy. I'm dispensing Tamiflu in my sleep (actually, I think I genuinely could give all of the counselling points and advice while sleep walking).

 

Oh yes, we're having fun.

 

We had a break! We went to Manchester first for one night so that my wife could indulge in her continued obsession with 'Take That'. They were very good and also I got to see the outside of 'Old Trafford', Manchester United's stadium. From there we travelled to London! Specifically we were there to go to Wimbledon.

 

I had been before but my wife had never. We got up at 5am and got an early underground train over to Wimbledon. We then joined the queue at about 6.15am. They gave us a 'Queue Card'! I think we were numbers 3655 and 3656 in the queue, so we waited. It's quite good, you kind of sit around on the grass in line for a bit. Then they get you up and move you around a bit, still in line of course, then you wait a bit and so on.

 

We eventually got there when the gates opened and bought a Ground Pass each and away we went for the day watching various matches on the outside courts. We'll definitely go again, but I think we'll only go if we have got tickets for a show court.

 

Then on to Paris! Paris was really good. We watched the Gay Pride parade on the saturday, we saw some sort of roller skate race go past us on the sunday, we went up the eiffel tower whilst some sort of impromptu Michael Jackson tribute was taking place underneath it and we snuck into Notre Dame for their evening sunday service (now I dislike religion and don't enjoy churches, but that was impressive).

 

We enjoyed our meals in Paris more than most places we've been too. I know you have to get lucky in restaurants wherever you are, but the food was a delight.

 

Then, as I said at the top, back to reality and pandemic flu!

This weekend I take what has become my yearly trip down memory lane. I return to Birmingham, where I went to university. I love to go back and feel all those feelings of nostalgia. I spent four years there after all! We will probably visit some of the same bars that we used to frequent and walk around remembering what came before. It is nice. I met my wife there of course, and for that alone it would have been worthwhile. It also provided me with a life experience that has stood me in good stead. Aston University is an excellent university, they trained me most of the way - I took the final steps myself during my pre-registration year. I have many strong and vivid memories of university life.

 

The first day of arrival, the loneliness and fear of the unknown. I was in a total inner turmoil for a few days, totally panicked by the situation and very homesick. A few weeks and a few friends later and it was completely different. I lived in halls of residence in my first year there. My flat was on floor 12 (20 floor buildings) sharing kitchen with nine others and our two flats of nine on floor 12 shared the bathroom area that consisted of three toilets and two showers. Living in halls is a mixed blessing, on one hand everyone is two minutes away and the pub can be reached by walking across the road as an after thought (unlike the following three years at university when a social gathering took major organisation). It feels like a big community, it's fun, there's always someone that wants to do what you feel like. On the other hand the petty stealing of other peoples food from the fridge and freezer. The familiar smell of cannabis that seems to permeate nearly every flat. The loud music coming from someones room, but in a tower block you cannot quite figure out who the person responsible is, so who do you go yell at?

 

I very slowly introduced myself to 'clubbing' and nights at the student union. I was a teetotaller and therefore had a rather unique perspective on these situations. It was often hilarious. I changed my hair style... twice, by january of that first year. I started to become vastly more confident in my social skills. I learned to live within my means, I actually had money leftover. That doesn't mean much unless I qualify it, I could have started with oodles couldn't I? I started with nothing, my parents were not well off. I had the student loan and that was it. I had £300 of that student loan leftover by the end of my first year. I spent an average of £3-5 on a night out due to not drinking (and not buying any drinks, I let everyone buy into the cheap yorkshireman routine), I spent about £10 a week on food, I had no TV, I bought only a couple of the texts that were recommended and instead spent extra time at the library to use those texts. As you might be able to tell, I was immensely proud of myself for all this. I finished the year modestly in terms of results, lower second class (2:2), as it was all four years...

 

That was nine years ago! I'm 50% older than I was. Are things as different from 18 to 27 as they are from 9 to 18 I wonder? I think the answer is yes. Anyone that thinks they've grown up by 18... maybe I shouldn't finish that. There might be someone twice my age thinking that I haven't finished my growing yet, you never do though do you? Nobody has all the answers, everyone is still growing up.

 

I think we all love going back to rekindle those memories and that adventurous spirit that we all had before we got responsibilities and jobs etc. So meeting up tomorrow night allows us to revert to type! Birmingham, by the way, is a fabulous city. Home of spaghetti junction, the Bull Ring shopping centre, Aston Villa Football Club!

Roger Federer has confirmed his status as tennis royalty! Today he lifted the French Open crown to win the only remaining major championship that had been, until now, out of his reach. What a remarkable achievement! Not only that but he matched the Grand Slam record of my boyhood idol Pete Sampras in winning his fourteenth Major. As you can tell, I am a keen tennis fan. My wife and I are actually heading to Wimbledon in a couple of weeks time to catch a day or two of the action. I haven't been for years, I'm really excited about it!

 

I used to play tennis as a kid, usually in the local park against my best friend. I never had any lessons or coaching, but we had some fierce encounters. We have a fierce rivalry at most things we compete at as I have said previously. I wonder, looking on at Roger Federer lifting his trophy, whether I could have been successful at something if I had had then the determination and dedication that I have now. Whether it be sports, or music. I was something of a quitter during my teens. No staying power! Nowadays, my will to succeed and my determination drives me forward, mainly in my career. Interesting how one can change...

 

 

Well, we did the wallpapering! It looks marvelous! We are really pleased with the job we did, we even managed to make the bits around plug sockets look professional. Maybe we have a new fallback career? Hehe, kidding. I've always thought to myself that if I get struck off I will train as a driving instructor. But I digress! So we just need to change the curtains now, the room looks a bit too bland since we got rid of colourful paper and put something very neutral up. We can take care of that by using colourful curtains and cushions for the sofas. I need to get the next door neighbours ladders to go up to the windows and give them a wash, and also to paint the ledges underneath them.. having the new pebble dashing has shown them up something shocking. I'm having a bloke over tomorrow to give us a quote for the driveway too, we had a couple of quotes already but not too happy with them.

 

In Quizzyland, I have been chasing certain badges. Not that I'm becoming a badge tart, well maybe a little bit. I nearly have 'Team Stakeholder'. I plod very slowly through the odd expert win, I have 6 so far. I so very nearly got a seventh last night in Europe (sports). I thought it was a banker for me.  I was beaten by someone from texas, go figure! I do well, but not well enough with these new question quizzes. I try every hour for the 'Mixed Hourly' version of smartest of the smart, I know I can get it on a lucky hour. I'm plodding slowly towards 1000 quizzes played for the 'quizzer' badge too. There must be others too!

We are redecorating the living room this weekend, I have spent half of today scraping wallpaper off the walls in there. New wallpaper will go up tomorrow, we've never done it before! I just can't believe it has taken us three years to take the last owners idea of taste down really. I don't tend to have had time to do any DIY over those past three years, but now I am having the chance during my weekdays off work. I'm not sure what our choice in wallpaper is going to look like, they have all sorts to choose from don't they. It's white with a pattern on it that changes in darkness depending on the angle it is viewed from, could be disastrous!

 

Speaking of things I can do during my weekdays off work, I met up with a former colleague of mine yesterday. He is now a partner in a couple of independent pharmacies, he was trying to offer me a job at one of them where their current pharmacist is leaving. He knew that I'd only just started a job last month, he offered me more money! I'm not interested in moving particularly so soon after starting (plus the fact that I love it there), but I gave him some advice (free), don't try to hire the type of person that will jump ship after a month and a half somewhere because the likelihood is they'll do it again and he'll wind up in the same position a few months down the line. He had had some similar responses from a few others, but he couldn't understand why we wouldn't go to him for more money. I guess some people just assume that money rules everything else - it does not.

 

Finally, I mentioned 'internet translation' recently. I have been using the internet for roughly ten years, in that time I have used a whole host of communication tools such as message boards, emails, chatrooms etc. Quite early on I learned that many internet users become embroiled in pointless arguments because of one of the problems with internet interaction - reading into the words or reading out of context.

When you communicate verbally, or even better communicate in person you put allsorts of inflections and intonations that help convey the message that you are trying to give. You can say something mean in an upbeat manner, or you can say something mean as part of a tongue-in-cheek joke. You can do the same thing in a chatroom or a forum and many people will not think about the context or the meaning. They might take it literally. This happens so often it's crazy! I noticed it immediately even on funtrivia boards and forums where for the most part intelligent and enlightened people are the users.

It frightened me off posting for a while, in fact I still quite often write a reply to a topic in the chatboards and then delete it all because I'm afraid that it will be taken out of context or someone will take offence. I wonder if anyone else does that? Or am I just too scared of causing offence perhaps...