Been a good week

This week has been a pretty good one smiley icon: smile Even things at work were quite exciting - the Karova offices were in fact buzzing with excitement. Why? Because we were waiting for our new toys to arrive! As Monday morning went on the Pavlov’s-dog reactions were getting more and more acute, each intercom call bringing ears perked and heads popping over the dividers to see if there was a delivery. Then we got our MyBooks! Excitement was high, but these were more of an appetiser for our technological hunger, and after quickly emptying boxes (and constructing a ‘Freedom Tower’ out of them) we were left wanting more. It wasn’t until mid week that the main toys arrived - new laptops for the dev team (Core2 Duo’s with 2Gb RAM and a host of big number nerdery), and a shiny new 24″ Dell monitor for me! wahoo! There are pictures of the event attached, and you can see the childlike glee pretty well.

Also this week I’ve been out with Pete and Dave after work, which was cool. It’s quite amusing listening to the escapades your boss has been up to ‘back in the day’ smiley icon: wink Thursday night I popped over to Bangor, where Ben kindly treated me to a meal at Fat Cats and I briefly met his new tennants at the pub. Unfortunately I was pretty shattered as the past few days of work had caught up with me, so I left about 8:30 and found myself very contentedly collapsed in my bed, the covers feeling like warm fluffy clouds of sleepiness, and was heading to the land of nod by 9:30. Best nights sleep in months. I loved it.

There are some nice new projects going on at Karova, and they involve me getting to sink my teeth into some new design ideas - I’m looking forward to being able to unleash some new Karova material pretty soon! The websites have been in need of some TLC (not to mention a make-over) for some time.

Also this weekend I went home to see family and friends, which was a very pleasant break. I got myself a desperately needed hair cut (the attached photo’s show exactly how desperate, I look awful!), got some new clothes, and had a really good Saturday afternoon/evening out with friends. It was great to be all out together, and it feels like a very long time since we last did that. Ten Pin Bowling was great fun, and an added bonus was I won two of the three games! Pizza Hut afterwards was also a crowd pleaser - great service, tastey food, and full bellies.

Today John Foster popped over in his new BMW 3 series. I’ve not seen him for a while, not since before he got posted to Afghanistan in fact, so it was cool to have a quick catch up while he took myself and my little brother for a spin. Lovely car, though a tad nippy with the top down (it is definitely turning into winter right now).

Unfortunately there was a bit of crappy news when I got back - Granddad’s dog, Jake, has been diagnosed with cancer. The poor guy is only 3yrs old, and is the smartest and nicest dog I’ve ever met. He’s had some treatment, and is on a rather large cocktail of drugs, but as far as I understand it the chances of recovery are very slim. smiley icon: sad Dad and myself went over to see Granddad and walk Jake, and good on Jake for not moping about. On the other hand, where he’d normally be super hectic on his walk, he was quite subdued - never straying very far and not even barking back at any other dogs. After getting back he promptly dropped to the floor for a good rest.