Jimbobjo's Way of Life

I'm off

2006-08-30T21:19:00.000+01:00

I'm sure that you will all know by now that I am leaving this fine country and heading north of the border for a new chapter in my life, which now also includes my lovely girlfriend.

We went up to Edinburgh, and ended up buying a flat! But we need to sort a few things out like getting the right mortgage.

Very exciting.

Joys of spring

2006-04-18T21:14:00.000+01:00

I am currently full of the joys of spring.

Buses

2006-04-11T12:37:00.000+01:00

It really is true that you waiting ages for a bus and then three come along at once.

It's ok though because I like buses.

Boat Race

2006-04-02T17:09:00.000+01:00

The dark side won again this year. Boo them! We'll win next year!!!

Fruit Cake

2006-03-31T23:10:00.000+01:00

I used to be a big fan of fruit cake.

But now that fruit cake is so widely available, I've really rather gone off it.

Here we go again...

2006-03-20T09:32:00.000Z

Have to admit that the finance transformation project was an excellent smokescreen.

Team night out

2006-03-17T07:39:00.000Z

I went on my first team night out for a while last night. We went to the Megabowl. Seems our Head Of enjoyed it so much with her other team that she thought that she would take us lot too.

Sadly my bowling performance deteriorated during the night, but this may have been down to the volume of alcohol consumed. 99 in the first round and 75 in the second. Yes, rubbish I know.

New clothes

2006-03-11T16:19:00.000Z

I have loads of new clothes to wear now, thanks to the help of Tsuki and Dom, but nowhere to go out to tonight to wear them.

Beauty and the Geek

2006-03-01T08:07:00.000Z

This program, shown on E4 has got better and better by the week. The basic principle is that seven hot but potentially dizzy women have been paired up with seven geeky men, but it's not a dating show it is a social experiment to see if the two sets of people can teach each other stuff to make themselves better people.

The voiceover is done by one of the guys from Peep Show and is done in a typically toungue in cheek manner. My favourite quote from the beauties so far was from early on in week two when one of the girls said "I've come to realise that just because a boy is a geek it doesn't mean that he is like awful".

Last night's episode was a classic where the girls gave their boys a makeover. The boys, some of whom did look radically different, the had to go to a club and get as many phone numbers as possible from girls. Then later the girls, stripped of their makeup and wearing clothes from a charity shop had to try and get drinks bought for them. Some of the boys did very well and the girls not so well.

Series only has two more episodes left.

Test

2006-02-19T15:47:00.000Z

This is a test to see of this works.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-18T14:46:00.000Z

Merry Christmas to one and all. Good luck for 2006.

Freedom for cats

2005-05-02T20:29:00.000+01:00

Cat is out of the bag.

30 years of Chip

2005-05-02T20:26:00.000+01:00

Thanks very much to Chip for taking us on a lovely Scottish jaunt for his 30th birthday. Officially the furthest north I have ever been.

Only a few years ago, the furthest north I had ever been was Bert's house. How things have moved on.

News update

2005-04-20T16:50:00.000+01:00

Wedding number one

Went to my first full wedding of the year on Saturday down in Winchester. Miss P looked lovely in her white dress made by her mum. Also got to see the bridegroom's knees by virtue of him being Scottish. I think that they'll be very happy. Was a very grown-up wedding with most of the guests in couples and some with young children. Not quite ready for that myself yet.

London Marathon

My girlfriend ran the London Marathon on Sunday in 4 hours 29 minutes, which was an excellent achievement. Her website is still open if anyone else wants to donate. She was looking to raise £1500 and she is almost there now.

Election Campaign

I'm helping one of the local parliamentary candidates campaign for the forthcoming general election. Have taken a few days off work to help with this. We have a good chance, the seat is definitely winnable.

Quiz win

It's been a while, but we returned to winning ways at the OWS on Monday. Certainly helped by the presence of Bertie.

10,000 days

2005-04-06T08:02:00.000+01:00

On Monday I had my 10,000th day. To celebrate I hired the back room of The Capital for a party.
A lot of people were doing exams though, so numbers were a little down on what I expected.

But my best friend from Norwich and from Newcastle did come over especially for the party which was lovely. My best friend from York, she was too busy to come though.

Before the party I went to Pastiche with the long-distance friends. I had just finished choosing which lovely dishes I was going to have when the waiter informed me that I had been given the March menu rather than the April menu, so I had to re-choose. All good food though.

Job description

2005-04-01T07:19:00.000+01:00

Not sure when I got the new job over the road in YH, that it was ever mentioned to me about the un-social hours that I need to work.

Two weeks ago I was in all day on a Sunday to test whether a project had gone live correctly (it hadn't!) and this morning I had a tele-conference at 7am in the morning for another part of the project. Thankfully I could do this from home, but it still meant getting up rather early and I had a phone call at 6.45am from a nice IT person to tell me stuff before the meeting. Good thing I was awake.

I guess I could go back to bed now.

I'm famous (in Yorkshire)

2005-03-23T07:14:00.000Z

I was rather bemused yesterday morning to come into work and be presented with a picture of myself! At first I thought that it must be some internal work document that somehow a photo of me had got onto. This was not the case, however.

It turns out that lots of people at work had received their annual AGM notices from a certain local building society and there is a big picture of me on the back cover! The photo was taken when I went to a member feedback meeting at the NRM last October time. They said that they were going to take some photos, but I had no idea that they would be used in the AGM notice and sent out to 1million policyholders!!

Because of this, I am rather more tempted to go to the AGM of another local building society, this time local to CC of which I am also a member. Then I may get in print again.

Manchester fun

2005-03-03T19:13:00.000Z

I have an interesting weekend coming up starting tomorrow night. I'm off to Manchester with CC to see a play put on by the Society that she used to be a member of. Means I'll get to meet a load more of her friends. Should be a positive end to a mixed week at work.

Hair (corrected)

2005-02-19T07:42:00.000Z

Might get a hair-cut today. Might be very short as a result. We shall see.

Look Around again

2005-02-11T07:52:00.000Z

Managed to miss the second episode of this. Doh.

This was because, rather embarrassingly, I managed to leave my keys to my house at CC's when I left there on Monday morning. This meant that I had to go back to hers Monday evening to collect them.

This was also why I was unable to come to the quiz this week.

Will do better next time.

Look Around You

2005-01-31T23:20:00.000Z

Didn't go to the quiz this evening because I was otherwise engaged, but I did get home in time to watch the new satirical show Look Around You on BBC Two. This was most excellent. This is series two, and the whole series is a spoof of Tomorrow's World. It was very funny.

Exciting news

2005-01-31T18:24:00.000Z

I have exciting news: I have been getting on very well with CC this month, and she is now my girfriend.

Victory (at last)

2005-01-25T06:38:00.000Z

Last night we won the OWS quiz by a margin of 1m points. There were four of us in the team and we all provided vital answers that the others didn't know. e.g. GeeDee with his boxing knowledge and Lint with his Duchy knowledge. Quiz was very busy so we won £10 each + Carling.

Jerry Springer - the Opera

2005-01-09T15:40:00.000Z

I saw Jerry Springer - the Opera last night and enjoyed it. I don't know what all the fuss was about. There wasn't that much swearing and it wasn't blasphemous at all.

Today I am ordering yet more stuff from the Internet: I have ordered some stuff to connect my Psion 3a to my PC.

TVs in all rooms (2)

2005-01-08T13:36:00.000Z

TV has now arrived. It's quite big, so I have had to re-arrange the furniture a little. Now time to a rest.

TVs in all rooms

2005-01-08T08:29:00.000Z

By this afternoon, I will have a TV in all the rooms of my house. Except for the toilet - it would be madness to have one in there.

Blogging is fun

2005-01-08T08:28:00.000Z

Blogging is fun. From now on I will only be using my Blog for fun stuff.

Happy New Year

2005-01-05T17:07:00.000Z

Happy New Year to all my friends who read my Blog.

Highlights of 2004

2004-12-29T07:17:00.000Z

I know that it is not actually the end of the year yet, but seeing as I am either going to be at work or at parties over the next two days, I thought that I would do this now. I was going to do highlights and lowlights, but I'd rather just concentrate on the good things. So here goes:

1. Dublin
2. Gimcrack
3. Ziggy's
4. FIA
5. Clio
6. Three jobs
7. Lost in Translation
8. Reflex
9. Reduced Shakespeare Company
10. Expenses

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T09:24:00.000Z

Need sleep

2004-12-18T01:52:00.000Z

For some reason I can't sleep this evening. Maybe it's because I'm too excited about my trip away this weekend. Bit annoying though because if I don't get enough sleep then I will be all grouchy for all of the day.

Dilemma

2004-12-17T08:04:00.000Z

Hmmm, not sure that I can spell "dilemma".

Now, I have bought a Christmas present for my ex-girlfriend. To clarify, this is the one previously described as my "dream woman". (That was probably over-playing her status - I was being a bit melodramatic in that post.) I will probably see her over Christmas, the question is should I give her the present? It is quite a nice present that I think she will really like, but it is a bit more than what one would normally give a person who is just a friend. I don't want to give her the wrong idea, because I am over her, but she is still a very close friend so I have bought her a nice present.

I think that I will go ahead and give her the present.

A review of a Chrimbo event that I went to last night (5)

2004-12-17T07:22:00.000Z

We are almost at the end of the marathon of Chrimbo events now. This is because we are almost at Christmas itself, and it is not really appropriate to have Chrimbo events after the actual day.

Last night was the FARG Christmas Do at the National Railway Museum. Again the food was god and most of my friends who live in the area were there, with a couple of important exceptions.

Tsuki again was wearing a fabulous home-made dress, this time a red affair with rather high slits up the side. It was ok though, she told me, because she was wearing sensible pants underneath. Not sure how this helps really, but I am not an expert in women's underwear.

Hard to choose who had the best outfit, because so many girls were there looking gorgeous. It was much easier to choose the best-looking girl at event one. I hope to have a date with her in the New Year, when our schedules are less busy.

Entertainment was a little disappointing - bog standard disco was provided. For some reason I was expecting a band. Must have got my wires-crossed there.

So score has to be 7 out of 10.

A review of a Chrimbo event that I went to last night (4)

2004-12-16T07:14:00.000Z

Last night, it was the joint-Xmas night out of the NBER and ABS teams. We decided to all go out together because the whole of Actuarial assume that we are the same team, even though we are not, even though we SHOULD be.

Meal was held in my favourite York restaurant, Pastiche, so I obviously enjoyed the food, and the company was good too. A nice finale to my short life in the ABS team.

Rating: 7.25 out of 10 - hmmm don't think Nina would like this score.

A review of a gig that I went to last night (2)

2004-12-14T00:12:00.000Z

Have just been to a gig at Fibbers. The main act was the Bluetones and the support acts were Sixty6 and Velvetines.

Sixty6 were enjoyable enough, but forgettable. I enjoyed the Velvetines (although I think that I was the only one of my friends to do so). I partly liked them because the lead singer was pretty. Later in the evening I went to have a sit down at the back of the pub where it was less sauna-like. After a few minutes I realised that I was sitting next to the band! Didn't talk to them though.

The Bluetones were excellent, although they got off to a slow start. All-in-all a very good night out. PJK score is a high one - 35 including 5 bonus points.

Should really go to bed now because I have an early start tomorrow for my third trip to Norwich in as many weeks.

X-Factor

2004-12-11T23:42:00.000Z

Tonight I had a party at mine to watch the finals of the X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. I had decorated the house with posters of the finalists from both shows.

In case you are interested, Steve won X-Factor and Jill Halfpenny won SCD.

Also got to hear all about Gee-Dee's adventure in Ziggy's last night.

Clever people

2004-12-11T08:09:00.000Z

Had a good evening last night celebrating the qualification of lots of clever people. I sneaked out during the evening to grab a pasty from the Pasty Shop. This was a good plan!

I came home before Ziggy's happened. I think that this was also a good plan. I was very tired after having only three hours sleep the night before.

This morning I have got up early (again) and have been busy trying to activate all the cards and internet services relating to my new current account.

I have also been considering actually doing some work, which is quite scary. Several people were asking me in the pub last night "What do you do once you've qualified?". I guess the answer is work more! I almost ordered Sky Sports this morning, but thought better of it. So I won't be watching more sport.

In other news, I got a relatively encouraging text message last night. I was expecting it all day yesterday so was a bit disappointed when it hadn't arrived. It did eventually arrive about 10:40pm. By this time though, I had fallen asleep in front of Jonathan Ross (the TV person not the Scottish trainee!!) so I was unable to follow up the text. Which was probably good.

Congratulations

2004-12-10T01:29:00.000Z

I'd like to be the first to congratulate the new qualifiers. I have counted 10 who have completed this time and it may well be 11. This beats our record from last time.

Sorry to those who didn't make it this time. I'm sure they won't be far behind.

I also spotted three names who qualified of people who have left the company and one guy I knew from University.

Stonking.

A review of a Chrimbo event that I went to last night (3)

2004-12-08T07:21:00.000Z

Last night was the PM EB Christmas night out at the Monk Bar Hotel. This turned out to be completely different to what I expected. I was expecting a quiet meal in the hotel restaurant. In actual fact we got a much better night - there was us and a few other tables of people in a function room kind of like the Christmas Meal we had in the Hilton a few years ago. It was a party with disco.

I did my best to build bridges between Finance and Actuarial, which I think that I had reasonable success at. JM and I were invited to continue on to the Gallery nightclub, York. We had to decline because we had an early start the next day. This was the sensible thing to do.

Food was good, not as good as I experienced on my date there earlier in the year, which is to be expected.

So 7.5 out of 10.

Next up is the NBER-ABS Christmas meal in Pastiche.

A review of a Chrimbo event that I went to last night (2)

2004-12-06T23:31:00.000Z

Well last night I was in London Town for the annual Christmas Cambridge reunion meal. This year this was held in Islington at Tiger Lil's. This is a stir-fry restaurant. You pick what you want to eat buffet style and then the nice men stir-fry it for you while-u-wait. We choose an all-u-can-eat option, so I did.

Food was lovely, as was the company so I can give this event a very healthy 7 out of 10.

Next up is the PM EB Christmas Party tomorrow night.

66 at last

2004-12-06T23:27:00.000Z

I was going to write a blog complaining (again) that there are no 66 anywhere in the UK and suspecting that Chip, Lint and Bertie must have cheated to get past it. However, I do not need to do this because I did finally spot one today - a yellow Vauxhall Tigra at lunchtime today.

Yay. Things are on the up.

A review of a Chrimbo event that I went to last night (1)

2004-12-04T08:40:00.000Z

It is now December which means that it is officially the festive season and this means that the Christmas parties can begin.

Last night was the Company-wide dinner at the Racecourse. I had never been to this before because it used to clash with the trips to Wales that I used to do. I had a fabulous time - food was lovely and plentiful, there were loads of people there, the music played was largely very good and there was a casino to bet at with fake money.

There were a lot more people there that I know than I expected so I was able to talk to lots of people that I don't normally get to chat to very often. I did almost miss my main course by doing this though, which would have been rather unfortunate.

All the girls in our group looked fantastic. Tsuki's home-made dress was pretty daring and didn't look home-made at all. I hope that someone has a picture of her back!

So my rating for this event is 8 out of 10. Next up is the PM EB Xmas Dinner at the MonkBar Hotel. I have eaten there before and it was delightful, but then so was the woman I was there with so that may have skewed my opinion of the place.

Recruiting is fun

2004-12-02T20:11:00.000Z

Spent a lot of today learning about the Assessment Centre that is happening next week. We went through the exercises that the kids will have to do. There are many of these and it does seem to be more difficult than in my day, and more relevant too.

At the end of the session, we discovered who we are paired up with. I have Lint, so the kids had better watch out. We'll be ruthless!

Things are on the up

2004-12-01T21:28:00.000Z

I am happy to say that things are on the up for me. I believe that this is due to a combination of factors:

I have snapped out of the bad mood that I have been in all summer. I guess that this can partly be put down to post-qualification blues, but there was a bit more to it than that in reality.
I have a new role at work that I think I am really going to enjoy, despite being sent over to that other building.
It is almost Christmas and Christmas is a great time of year.

CNPS aaargh!

2004-12-01T21:22:00.000Z

I have so far refrained from mentioning CNPS on this Blog, but I am now really frustrated by my lack of spotting a 66. Today I spent four hours in a car (travelling between Peterboro and Norwich and back again), and still failed to spot a 66. To make things worse I have seen loads of 67, 68 and 69. Yesterday there was even a 67 outside work laughing at me.

Chip has told me where there might be one, but I haven't seen it there either. Aaargh!

A fine city

2004-12-01T05:57:00.000Z

Just time for a quick post before I go to the station to go to that fine city of Norwich for the day. This is the first of several trips planned so that I can learn the work for my new job in Existing Business.

PS - Is it just me or have other people had problems logging on to Blogger in the last couple of days?

Snooker loopy

2004-11-28T09:58:00.000Z

Snooker didn't last quite as long as we would have liked last night. Mainly because one of the contenders couldn't pot a ball to save his life. Next year, we'll probably revert to seeing the earlier rounds.

So we went to the Red Lion at 9pm. Which was very smoky, but otherwise good. Think Nick was disappointed that I couldn't provide any hot babes for him in the pub.

It's been a strange week starting with my decision to make an early move to my new department and ending with my trip to London which went well.

Lots of stuff planned now in the run-up to Christmas. Including, until last week, unexpected trips to the fine city of Norwich.

PTH IX

2004-11-22T19:21:00.000Z

The ninth and probably last Pub Treasure Hunt was held in fine York on Thursday evening. My team the Secret Squirrels won a prize for the best answers to our specialist round and came fourth overall according to the scoresheet. The scoresheet was wrong, however, because we did eat a scooby snack and so we really came third.

It was a high quality PTH, but there were too many questions which stopped us from actually talking to each other and bonding as a team, which is the main point of the event.

Bad Data won the quiz (again). They had made another good effort with the costumes - one of Tsuki's many talents.

Message for Iasonas

2004-11-18T08:11:00.000Z

I was very well behaved last night. Thank you!

Chocolate heaven

2004-11-17T07:18:00.000Z

Lasr night I went to a Thorntons evening arranged by the Sports and Social Club. First thing we did was go round the room to say what our favourite Thortons chocolate was. I do not have a favourite Thortons chocolate, so I said my favourite chocolate was Yorkie. This didn't go down too well.

Lest We Forget

2004-11-14T11:22:00.000Z

Today is Remembrance Sunday. If the brave people who fought all those years ago hadn't been successful, I wouldn't be around today to worry about the relatively insignificant stuff that I seem to spend all my time worrying about.

My grandfather, who died yesterday, was one of those people. I will try to be more like him in the future.

A review of a gig that I went to last night (1)*

2004-11-11T07:16:00.000Z

Last night I went to Fibbers for the first time in ages. My main reason for going was to support our friend Drew who is in the band Motu One. They were up first and were very good. Second on was Four Day Hombre who I enjoyed this time. Last time I saw them they were the main event and the first four songs they played were weak, so I left. They apparently got better soon after. I wasn't bothered, I still had a good night.

The main event tonight was an American called Ethan. Didn't think much of him with his long hair, political lyrics that I couldn't really hear and harmonica solo.

Quite a few people turned up to Fibbers. This gave a PJK score of 13. Good start.

Next gig will be Bluetones!

*Apologies to Lint for stealing his blog title

Oooohhhhh-klhoma!

2004-11-10T19:17:00.000Z

Went to see Oklahoma! at the City Screen on Sunday night in full glorious TODD-AO 70mm format. The projector man was very excited about it when he was explaining it to us before the screening. The picture quality and sound quality were noticeably different.

Had never seen the film before, but I have seen the play earlier this year in Norwich at the traditional Statutory Reporting Team trip. Unfortunately what with restructures and all, we're not going to go next year, which is a shame. Also partly my fault for booking my Professionalism course at a clashing time.

Off tonight to Fibbers to see Motu One and Four Day Hombre. May even stay for the whole 4DH set this time.

More people visiting York

2004-11-07T10:44:00.000Z

This weekend a couple of my friends from London have come up to York for a birthday treat, so I met up with them in the Slug and Lettuce. This was after having a gorgeous meal in Kites. Don't often have the chance to eat wood pigeon!

Tonight I am going to the cinema again for the special 70mm showings of classic films. Not sure how many films I am going to see. Might see two films. Might be sensible to just book the first film first and see just how much better the 70mm film is compared to standard film.

We shall see.

ITV3 is here

2004-11-05T07:55:00.000Z

Only a few years ago we only had four TV channels in the UK. Now everyone has access to free multi-channel TV and the traditional broadcasters are launching their own extra free channels. The latest is ITV3 which I watched for the first time last night - to watch a spin-off from The Bill. Don't think that there's much else I'd like to watch on it though.

Finding Neverland

2004-10-31T22:56:00.000Z

Tonight I went to the pictures to see Finding Neverland. This is a film about the author who wrote Peter Pan. The film starred Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. Both were very good in it. I am a big Kate Winslet fan so her being it was a big plus.

Links are here

2004-10-31T13:21:00.000Z

Have decided to add some links to other blogs. You can now see these on the sidebar.

Hallowe'en party

2004-10-31T11:54:00.000Z

Thanks to Dom and Tsuki for hosting a Buffy styled Hallowe'en party last night. I went as Giles from the episode 'Band Candy' when he regressed to his teenage years. Tsuki and Jacq had made their own costumes and looked great. Dom had also made a good effort with his Spike outfit.

Not really a Buffy fan myself - too scary for me!

I brought an Angel cake to the party which I only realised when I arrived was actually far cleverer than I had thought it was when I bought it that afternoon.

Photo messages

2004-10-30T11:45:00.000+01:00

I received my first ever photo message last night. I had forgotten that my phone can send and receive these given that it doesn't have an in-built camera. The message was from Lint who had taken a picture of the "champagne glass" that he was drinking from whilst I had gone for a curry.

Thought the champagne glass looked more like a normal wine glass on my phone though. Will have to find out tonight what the real story is.

Badfriend is here

2004-10-23T01:20:00.000+01:00

Tonight Badfriend arrived, a little later than planned, to visit us for the weekend. We went to the olive tree which is a posh restaurant opposite Clifford's Tower. Food was lovely, but you do pay for the privilege of the food being very good. I'd rather go for a cheap curry in Norwich, which is what I did do a couple of weeks ago.

Code 46

2004-10-21T07:41:00.000+01:00

Last night I went to the cinema to see Code 46. Ended up being there on my own. Iasonas had arranged to go to the cinema, but had cancelled due to lack of interest. I had said that I couldn't go, but I changed my mind and went anyway.

Anyway, thought the film was pretty good. Better than the last film that we saw at the City Screen anyway. And more fun than studying!

Scotland is far away

2004-10-17T21:27:00.000+01:00

I went to Scotland for the first time this weekend for the flat-warming of one of our two friends who have scarpered north of the border. Much fun was had singing kareoke - thanks Jacq for a lovely party. I missed out last time there was kareoke on, but I remember having an unexpectedly good time on that evening!

Scotland was further away than expected because of rail engineering works. This meant that Lint and I went to Edinburgh via Carlisle, which is the wrong way. Bertie kindly picked us up from the station.

Ended up sleeping on a sofa bed that Jacq didn't know she had, and neither did her previous guest who slept on it as a sofa! Yummy breakfast was also provided this morning.

Moment of truth - revealed

2004-10-17T21:22:00.000+01:00

As it turns out, no-one in Actuarial is going to be made redundant this time round in York. So it was all a big worry over nothing. Still need to decide where I want to move to though seeing as there is only one Asst Actuary job in the merged team I could be in and three of us currently at that level.

Any thoughts?

Moment of truth (part 1)

2004-10-12T07:24:00.000+01:00

Today we find out the new structure at work and discover whether there is a potenetial space for us in it. 10% of us are going to go on the face of it.

Good night out

2004-10-07T11:37:00.000+01:00

I went out to the Gallery last night and had a pretty good time. The Gallery is one of several nightclubs here in York. When I first approached there I saw a police car outside, so I thought it best to go elsewhere. I went over to Toffs instead, but that was having a student only night so I went back to the Gallery and went in with no hassle.

I was very pleased to find that 4X was only £1.30 a pint. The music was dance, then 80s then RnB. Downstairs there was indie. I did seem to be the oldest person on the dance floor a lot of the time - most of the people there were students - but I didn't care!

First post

2004-09-18T23:19:00.000+01:00

Most people seem to start with a post called "First Post" so here is mine.