Mr Grumpy Rides Again!

Not quite as efficient a day as I’d hoped on Friday; the cold that had been developing was in full flow, sapping my energy and enthusiasm.

The most memorable moment of the day was receiving a phone call asking “Did you know there’s water leaking out from the Server Room?” For someone in my position, that evokes the same kind of response as the Financial Director would feel if someone wonders into his office and asks “Why are all our bank accounts empty?” or how the passengers of the jumbo jet must have felt when the captain told them that all four engines had failed; you know you are in some potentially very serious shit.

There was water dripping (at quite a rate!) off one off the air conditioners that keeps the server room cool; it had soaked a diameter of nearly two metres of carpet and even soaked through the raised floor to stain the concrete below. Fortunately this was nowhere near as big a deal as it first seemed – in fact because of the nature of the room, this was the one place in the building where such a soaking would have minimal effect because we don’t have any floor outlets; the only power systems under the floor are the armoured cables running to the industrial-type power sockets supplying the equipment racks which would need several inches of flooding to be affected. A well-placed bowl prevented the problem from getting any worse while we waited for an engineer to come and fix the problem.

By the time I left work though, I was pretty weary and really rather wishing I could go home rather than having tickets for a show, but Avenue Q (the show in question) turned out to be worth the effort. As I said previously, I knew the concept in advance. I’d even heard a couple of the songs (The Internet is for Porn and Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist) on various TV items about the show but actually watching the show itself was far more entertaining than I had expected. If you haven’t seen it yet I really do recommend it. Brett and I both want to see it again.

Today I was on a train to my parents and I have to say that the trip with Virgin left a lot to be desired. If you book in advance these days you can often get two First Class single tickets cheaper than a Standard Class return. I enjoy First Class because you have more space, generally quieter carriages and (on GNER at least) table service and free WiFi Internet access. Well, not on Virgin. The carriage was full of loud Trade Union reps off to some conference. The free tea and coffee was available but you had to go and get it by presenting your ticket at the shop, half a train away. There was no onboard WiFi. To top it all off, the heat (come on, let’s face it, 28°C isn’t such a rare occurrence nowadays!) seemed to be having an unfortunate effect on the onboard toilets as there was a distinct smell of sewage in the carriage for the latter half of the journey. Not nice. Certainly not First Class!

If I had paid enough money to make it worthwhile I’d be demanding a refund right now!

So anyway, as a result of the journey, I was feeling rather rough when I arrived, had a nap for an hour or so, but eventually came round and had a look at the parents’ IT problems. (I think I’ve solved them now, although the logic of the diagnosis was somewhat nebulous…).

Because of the nice weather, Dad wanted to have a barbeque on the terrace, but because there was a bit of a breeze we couldn’t put the sunshade up and periodically had to hold the table down to stop it being lifted in the wind. On the whole I fear we looked, if not quite like the dinner party scene from Carry on up the Khyber, then at least a little like an episode of Terry and June; the sun is shining so we’ll go out and enjoy it, no matter what travails we have to suffer. At least the food was good!

Unlike my father, I don’t really enjoy sitting in the sunshine; I sweat too easily, burn too quickly and hate being smothered in suntan lotion which inevitably stains your clothes and means you leave greasy handprints on everything you touch. I made my excuses as soon as I could and came inside.

Tonight I’m feeling somewhat better (sorry if this has sounded like a Victor Meldrew rant so far) but still intend to get an early night. Tomorrow Chris & Michelle C will be coming over for brunch.

I wish Brett were here (he isn't, for reasons too complicated to explain) as I could do with a hug right now.