BIG news

Okay, so I have not blogged in a very, very longtime. And lots of things have happened. Both in the world in general and in my own little world too. Sooooooooo, Basically in case you don't already know (but I think everyone who is likly to read this prob' does by now) we moved into Nerwhouse on Monday. And it's ace. We have two functioning (well kinda three really) rooms; our bedroom, the boys room. And kinda the kitchen, in so muchas we've moved most of the crap out of it and cleaned the floor so you can use it as a store room type space - not as a kitchen; in fact at the moment it most resembles a walk in fridge so that's kinda kitchen-y.

But that's it really. We are busy getting moving house and getting it together for christmas. Hope all is well with all you guys. I may post more, I may not depends on how I feel.

Oh if you need to get ahold of me then call my mums house we have an extension in our bit. If you ain't got the number call someone you think will have it!

PPS My mobile number is now defunct - I'm gonna get a new one when I get round to it, Pen's still works though so you can try that either.

House Update

So it occurs to me that I have been a little tawdy in keeping people up to date with what is happening with Newhouse at the mo'.

Not sure hat you might know so I'll just go ahead and give a quick run down.

Well, firstly the architect, Britt, has finished her initial survey - that basically amounts to going 'yep that's what we got at the mo'. The next stage(s) that she is doing is drawing up a plan and schedule for the work and doing a sort of recording report of what is there as far as the historic features and history of the property and the like.

We had the builder, Wayne, do a bunch of stuff. He's taken out the fireplace in the kitchen in prep for the stove, taken down a couple of breeze block walls so know you can go from the toilet to the front bedroom, and taken away the panel that was between the toilet and the bathroom to be repaired so that we can close the bathroom of and make it a bedroom. He also took the false ceiling down in the porch and the porch looks sooo much nicer without it. The thing with the kitchen fireplace is a bit of stress at the mo' though as when they filled it in they seemed to brick it up entirely, leaving no space behind. This is not normal. All the books say you knock down a little brick wall and there is a cavity that forms the fireplace behind. So it means there is now a big messy hole with no clear idea as to what was put in when and how much of it is supporting the chimney/wall. Not an ideal situation.

We have also had the whole house rewired. And the cabling is laid for new wiring whenever we get permission to put in the new sockets and what have you. They have done a cracking job - and the new conduit (we was made tailor made for this build) looks real nice and discreet.

Err, and we've taken out the bath from the bathroom, and mostly sorted out the plumbing there. In so much as we've resected and capped the cold supply and tested it and now it works. And Fixed the cistern so we have a flushing toilet. Yet to test the hot water system though, and def' not sure what we are doing about hot water in the interim as I'm not sure what state the immersion coil will be in.

Anyway, that's mostly it I think - ohh and the ceilings have been relathed and are waiting for plastering - so if anyone can recommend a good lime plasterer then please do!

YourNotMe

In fact nobody is (apart from me obviously; that'd be freeky).

What an excellent site. No idea how they know if your on holidayin spain or not - prehaps it's the RFID chips the goverments been implanting in everybody?

BTW - there are only 80 peeps who are called Diccon in the UK. Hmmm feel a Dave Gorman moment coming on (no resist, resist).

Oh, and as far as my mothers ongoing whinge that her name is made up - well there is only one darrolyn; but there is 6 darolyns. Now given that I have no idea how to spell my mums name (other than D-A-Z) I'd say that that really shows there are 7 people with her name, possible (but incredibly unlikely) that they all heard daz's name and thought 'ohh, that's lovely, must call the baby/change my name by deedpoll'. Or that seven other crazy parents made it up. More likley that it is a bonafide name but most people reconised it as being as lovely as it is and body swerved before it stuck.

However, I am quite pissed that she has a more unusual name than me, but it does explain a lot when it comes to her choice for me and Taru.

Hmmm, talking of Taru I always thought there was something a bit odd about her;

Taru Sinclair
Taru Lowe

That explains an awful lot.

Why is yawning contagious?

"New research suggests rather than being a precursor to sleep, the purpose of yawning is to cool the brain so it operates more efficiently and keeps you awake."

Not unlike a troll helmet then.

And does this mean (not having actually read the article yet) Alaskans (say) don't yawn, but Texan yawn all the time. And for that matter, if you put an Alaskan in Texas would he yawn all the time and think slow, and a Texan in Alaska would the reverse?

Should I buy a walk in freezer for my brother to do his homework in so he has some hope of passing anything ever?

Daily Mail Readers = Prince Fans?

So I caught this article basically saying that Prince's new album is going to be given away free with the Mail (I think 'on Sunday') . Which leads me to think two things.

1. Do the kinda people who listen to Prince read the Mail? Do the kind of people who read the Mail listen to Prince? Is the combo likely to convert one to the other? I think the answer to the above is prob' no. I suspect it is going to result in a lot of copies of the Mail in the nearest recycling bin to the newsagents, and lot of Prince albums on freecycle (though I'm not 100% that Mail readers are overly likely to freecycle either), charity shops, landfill.
   

1. Was this really a sensible thing to do? Okay it's made for great launch publicity for the album and impending tour dates. But, for a start I think it devalues Prince's 'brand' (not that he has much of presence at the mo' admittedly)- partly by being associated with the Mail (but that is in part my own personal bias) partly by being associated with a cover give-away (usually the domain of the long released album or cobbled together best of) but mostly because now his UK distributor has backed out of the deal meaning they ain't gonna sell many in the mainstream over here.

Anyway - what do I know about marketing. It still dumbfounds me that if, in the world of the ad, the only thing that matters is the amount of market presence a product has as many people would have me believe, companies still pay millions for celebrity endorsements and clever ads etc.

Anyway, that's just a bit of news that caught my attention. BTW speaking of such things I've got a nifty little gadget that shows my GoogleReader items what I have shared. I find something worth reading most days, but as I'm still trying to hone what subs I want to sign up for bear with me will ya'. Any suggestion gratefully recieved. You can also catch my public feed here and it has a little RSS dealie too, so you can subscribe to my shared items in your GoogleReader and then add them to your Shared items, so then I can subscribe and then add them to my shared items and - well you get the picture.

Germany Bans Small People

Well Person anyway.

I don't get it

I've joined FaceBook and, well, I don't get it.

I think I've set everything up alright; but I really don't understand why you'd bother. Anyway, I'm gonna give it a go. I might find it a really usefull tool, or I might not - or someone might tell me why.

I'm also annoyed 'cause I don't appear to be able to import this blog into it. No understanding as to why. If someone (Allie) could assit me with that it'd be great.