Namesake

Namesake
Originally uploaded by doogleQ.

I found myself on TV last night. Somebody with the same name was trying to

pay off their mortgage in two years on a BBC2 show. He seemed a nice chap

with his head screwed on, and not some sort of chavvy loser. Well I probably

do share my name with some ne'er-do-wells, but lets hope they remain hidden!

Akbar's

Had a very pleasant meal at Akbar's restaurant tonight to celebrate a friend's birthday. We had to wait a long time in the standing-room-only bar area, long enough for one and a half bottles of Cobra. I saw one of my modern day TV heroes, Richard McCourt or Dick as he has been known, at the bar too. But it was too crowded to make a scene and dash over for a photograph or autograph. Besides, I already own a dog bowl which bears his signature!

Mustafa was our server for the evening and, as is often the case with this style of food, the service was very quick. Mustafa also brought Suzie an ice-cream with candles in it, and we all sang. Most tables seemed to be singing Happy Birthday at some point in the evening. I'm not sure if they were all genuine, or each trying to be louder than the previous table just for the fun of it!

Tomorrow night, we may had back to Liverpool Road for The Ox's famous pub quiz. It would be good to start making that a regular Sunday night thing again. It depends how much boring coursework I can get done during the day as to whether I'll be able to start the regularity tomorrow or not...

Local

Local,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

We had dinner out at Albert's Shed this evening, which was delightful as ever. There was a big all-male group as some sort of Christmas outing, and were a little rowdy for the normally-quiet restaurant.

When we got back, we went to the other local which we hadn't tried so far. It was ok, but I prefer the marginally closer Legh Arms. Anyway, here's a picture taken on, with my first blog post from, my new phone.

Who will buy

Who will buy,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

Labour vs. Conservative

Labour vs. Conservative,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

"Have you got a light?"

apologies

apologies,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

for not writing for so long. So much has happened, including house buying, end of term at work, and many more unmentionable things.

But here we are, celebrating Nav's 28th birthday in a pub in Stoke. Paul reckons it's a gay pub. Bless :)

Pubs and Programming

Paul and I got cold sitting outside the Slug & Lettuce (Paul especially as he had ice cubes in his cider and black...) We moved on to the Sir Ralph Abercromby on Bootle Street. We used to come here for "Spikey Watching" but there was no Spikey about. As we approached, I wondered whether X Factor or Big Brother would be on the TV in the bar. It turned out to be Sky News, and the TV had been upgraded to a flat (LCD wotsit) one. Big Brother was put on after a while by the barman, probably bored of hearing the repeating "Breaking News" swoosh noises that appear on Sky News (the news was something to do with John Prescott). We had a few more pints here and then I cycled home.

I didn't manage to get up early, but somehow was only slightly late for work. I worked on my barcode reading software, which I'm still finding exciting. They're actually going to be used in production on green paper, so I printed a barcode on the same green paper to give it a try. I scanned it in and read gobbledygook. Hmm, not very impressive. But then I had an idea to change the algorithm and then it seemed to work better than ever, even on green paper! This excited me, but then I had to go and observe some user training, and I observed the software not working. I had to fix this, and I think I have done, ready for another attempt on Friday.

I've been in touch with IT, and we're going to get hold of a reasonably speedy sheet-feed scanner for use at main enrolment and for other stuff. I'm also getting a traditional style CCD barcode reader to test out my barcodes for real. It's like Christmas :)

Went to Gareth's parents' on the way home to pick him up. Had dinner, then came home for a beer before bed.

I'm really enjoying the "Monster" song by The Automatic, a band of four teenagers from Wales. It's out next week. Also out next week is the winning Eurovision song, Hardrock Hallelujah by Lordi. It's coming out on Tuesday because of the 06/06/06 thing. Sweet :)

Pub one

Pub one,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

Meeting up with Paul for a few evening drinks. It was meant to be earlier, and I was going to take a bike ride somewhere on my way. But I got delayed with cooking dinner and other things.

We start at the Slug&Lettuce due to its outdoor tables. Paul hasn't arrived yet, but it on his way. He wanted a pint of cider and black but they only sell trendy pint-sized bottled ciders! Mine's a Fosters anyway :)